THE 

TRUE RELIGION 



AND ITS DOGMAS. 



BY 



/ 

REV. NICHOLAS RUSSO, S.J. 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN BOSTON COLLEGE. 



" Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice." 

Matt. vi. 33. 




BOSTON: 
THOMAS B. NOONAN AND COMPANY 

17, 19, and 21 Boylston Street. 

1886. 




Permfessu Supertorum, 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by 
EDWARD V. BOURSAUD, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D-C. 



Electrotyped by 
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston. 



CONTENTS. 



Part 5. 

Chapter Paoi 

Introduction 1 

I. Requirements for the study of religion . 5 

II. The necessity of religion 14 

III. Reason and revelation 23 

IY. Religion and Christianity 33 

V. The divinity of Jesus Christ 45 

VI. The genuineness of the Gospels .... 56 

VII. An outline of the Christian Church . . 67 

VIII. Actual existence of the Christian Church, 75 

IX. The unity of the Christian Church ... 87 

X. Theological opinions and new definitions, 97 

XI. The teaching authority of the Church . 107 

XII. Papal infallibility 116 

XIII. The Church and the natural sciences . 127 

XIV. Salvation out of the Church 133 

XV. The salvation of unbaptized children . 149 

XVI. A FEW WORDS ABOUT INFIDELS 155 

XVII. Recapitulation 162 

iii 



iv 



Contents. 



Part EL 

Chapter Pagb 

Introduction 167 

I. The dogma of the Trinity . ... . . . 168 

IT. Created and uncreated life 178 

III. The Incarnation 187 

IY, The Eucharist 198 

V. Wonders of the Real Presence .... 211 

YI. TRAN SUBSTANTIATION 222 

VII. THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 233 

VIII. Everlasting punishments 245 



IX. Veneration and invocation of saints . . 256 
X. The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church, 266 



THE TBUE RELIGION 

AND ITS DOGMAS. 



As long as we find it impossible to admire what 
blights the fairest hopes and thwarts the highest 
aspirations of man, so long shall we be unable to 
accede to the claims of Rationalists, or grant that 
their work is the noblest ever accomplished among 
men. We need but glance about us to be con- 
vinced of the ruinous effects of their teaching. 
Man seems to have lost the sense of his true dig- 
nity ; he lives as if the span of the present were 
the limit of his destiny ; the family no longer 
wears that halo of glory which caused it to shine 
with a divine splendor, and rendered it capable of 
the high mission it was to perform for the race ; 
and society, God's great institution, the mother of 
order, the protectress of right, now declining from 
her high state, degraded from her mission, enfee- 
bled in her authoritj^, presents only the appearance 
of a mechanism, — formidable, it is true, but, for 

l 



2 



The True Religion. 



all that, fast moving toward its destruction. All 
this may be traced back to the war which for long 
centuries rationalism has waged against Christ 
and His church. Hence the duty incumbent upon 
Christian writers of demonstrating the reasonable- 
ness of revealed religion and its dogmas. Toward 
this result many a noble mind has directed its 
efforts ; and the labors of such have contributed 
not a little to show the regenerating power pos- 
sessed by Christ's teaching, when proposed and 
expounded by competent authority. We have not 
the pretension to compare ourselves to them, nor 
this little work to theirs. We are conscious, — 
no one more so, — of its deficiencies; j r et, notwith- 
standing its incompleteness and many imperfec- 
tions, we trust that it will not be altogether 
unprofitable. We shall consider ourselves well 
repaid for our labor should we succeed in awaken- 
ing some of our fellow-men to the desire of study- 
ing in abler treatises that which is only touched 
upon in our work. 

This essay is divided into two parts. After 
pointing out the primary dispositions w r e should 
bring to the study of religion, we shall prove that 
religion is a duty and a necessity for man, and 
thence, from the inability of human reason to 
formulate religious systems, shall deduce the ne« 



The True Religion, 



3 



cessity of revealed religion. Its existence will 
next be proved, as well as the divinity of Jesus 
Christ, its author, and the genuineness of the 
Gospel narrative ; after which, we shall make 
good the claims of the Catholic Church to a divine 
origin. We shall conclude this first part by ex- 
amining the much debated and much more misun- 
derstood question of salvation out of the Church. 
In the second part we shall consider, from a rather 
philosophical point of view, the main dogmas held 
by Catholics, and show that they conflict in no 
way with the dictates of sound reason. 



t 



THE TRUE RELIGION. 



Part I. 



CHAPTER I. 

EEQUIREMENTS FOE, THE STUDY OF EELIGION. 

Causes of ignorance and error — The mental vision obscured 
by prejudices and passion — Influence of preconceived ideas on 
the Apostles themselves — What prevents Rationalists from ad- 
mitting revelation — Attitude of Protestants towards the Catholic 
Church — Liberal Catholicism — Research after truth requires an 
unbiassed mind md an earnest will. 

Many and different are the causes which may 
withhold man from the possession of truth. A 
more common one, yet perhaps less noticed than 
the others, lies in the inquirer's own dispositions. 
A clear and bright mirror reflects objects as they 
are ; but let this same mirror be dimmed by dust, 
it will obscure whatever is placed before it. So 
with our mind. Free from prejudices and pas- 
sions, we can easily perceive the truth ; but when 
preconceived ideas have warped our intellect, or 
passions ruffled the smooth surface of our soul, or 
worldly interests spread their dense film over it, 
things are no longer represented as they are. 

5 



6 



The True Religion. 



Some glimpse of the truth may, indeed, be vouch- 
safed us, but its full light and purity must of 
necessity be wanting. 

Let us confirm this by an example borrowed 
from the Gospel. On one occasion, especially, Our 
Lord spoke of His Passion to the Apostles, and 
they understood Him not. The Evangelist seems 
desirous of drawing attention to this fact, for he 
repeats it three times in the same verse, and almost 
in the same words : " They understood none of 
these things ; this word was hid from them ; they 
understood not the things that were said." - Here 
the difficulty could not have arisen from the in- 
comprehensible nature of the subject, which was 
no hidden truth or profound mystery. Neither 
could it have come from our Lord's language. His 
words are clear ; He speaks not in parables ; He 
tells them plainly that He " shall be delivered to 
the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spit upon, 
and after they have scourged Him, they will put 
Him to death." (Luke xix.) The difficulty came 
from the Apostles themselves, from the false ideas 
they entertained and the imperfect dispositions of 
their wills. 

The Apostles had, in fact, formed an erroneous 
idea of the Messiah. They knew He was to be 
great, but they measured greatness by a worldly 



Requirements for the Study of Religion. 7 



standard. He was to establish a Kingdom, but to 
them this conveyed only the notion of temporal 
power and material prosperity. He was to be 
glorious, but they could conceive of no glory 
except the perishable one derived from earthly 
enterprise, success, enthusiasm. Upon such a 
basis it was impossible to reconcile greatness with 
humiliation, power with contempt, or glory with 
the silence of the tomb. Consequently they un- 
derstood none of the words spoken to them. 

Their will was in fault as much as their intel- 
lect. The Apostles were loath to suffer. The 
love they bore their Master had not yet con- 
sumed all self-love, nor were their aspirations 
as yet centred, upon the unfading jo}'s of eter- 
nity. They shrank from suffering, and yet knew 
that they could not expect to gather laurels in 
the same world wherein their Saviour was to be 
crowned with thorns. They must perforce be 
content with trials and contradictions, mockery 
and contempt, pain and death, if they were to 
be followers of a Man of Sorrows, friends of a 
persecuted Lord, children of a crucified God. 
The conclusion was unavoidable, except by deny- 
ing the principle on which it rested. And so 
they discarded from their minds the very idea of 
our Lord's sufferings; and when the details of His 



s 



The True Religion. 



coming Passion were unfolded before them, they 
understood nothing of what was said. 

This we see often repeated in our day. We 
wonder, and with reason, that men otherwise mor- 
ally estimable reject all revelation ; that others, 
Christians though they be, and wanting neither 
ability nor learning, are yet so unfair toward our 
Church ; and that Catholics themselves sometimes 
act and speak in a way that does not become the 
disciples of Christ and the children of God's own 
Church. The latent cause, in most cases, is one 
and the same. Men find it difficult to accept 
Christ's teaching, to understand His words, or 
to practise His religion ; and this on account 
of the dispositions of their own souls. 

Some deny revelation altogether. Why ? Be- 
cause it contains mysteries and teaches truths 
which are opposed to what they call their " pro- 
found convictions." But have they ever exam- 
ined these convictions? Have they a correct 
idea of the nature of mysteries ? Do they realize 
man's position in this world? Ask them what 
they understand by a mystery. Their answer is 
well known : something contrary to reason. Ask 
them what idea they have of reason itself? They 
look upon it as 66 an independent faculty, the cri- 
terion of all truth." By those who accept these 



Requirements for the Study of Religion. 9 



definitions, mysteries must be logically rejected. 
It is evident that there can be no truth above the 
comprehension of an independent mind, the cri- 
terion of all truth ; nor can anything be true 
which contradicts the evident principles of rea- 
son. The argument is correct in form ; but this 
alone cannot ensure the truth of the conclusion. 
Its supporters should examine the premises upon 
which it rests. If they would consent to analyze 
the convictions they take for axioms, they would 
perceive the contradictions involved ; how they 
imply either the deification of man, or the annihi- 
lation of God. If they assert that man's mind is 
restricted by no limitations, they transform man 
into God ; on the other hand, they destroy the 
very idea of God if they do not acknowledge in 
Him an infinite truth and perfection. Should 
they consider man, as he is, a finite being, and 
God as the Infinite, they would soon ascertain 
that a finite mind cannot fully understand an 
infinite perfection, and would therefore admit the 
existence of truths beyond the reach of human 
faculties. But, while they entertain different 
views, and look upon mysteries through so false 
and perverted a medium, they cannot understand 
Christ's teaching ; and His word is hidden from 
them. 



10 



The True Religion. 



The same method of reasoning is applicable 
to those Christians who reject Christ's teaching 
as presented by the Roman Catholic Church. 
Search for the source of their opposition ; ask 
why they condemn the Church, her doctrine 
and her practices. You will find that it is be- 
cause many poor and ignorant people belong to 
it ; because some of its ministers have given occa- 
sion for scandal ; because they cannot reconcile 
some of its doctrines with their early religious or 
secular training ; because the Church constrains 
man's liberty by certain regulations. Do these 
and similar reasons furnish ground to justify their 
condemnation of the Church? Are they weighty 
enough to decide the most important of questions, 
the only one worthy of supreme attention ? Can 
they be relied upon to settle a point upon which 
our eternal destiny depends? 

They claim to decide everything by the teach- 
ing of the Gospel. But can they point out the 
passage of Scripture in which the wealth, digni- 
ties, refinement, or worldly qualifications of its 
professors are given as the marks of the true relig- 
ion, the religion of Him who despised the world, 
its vanities and glories, and came to preach to the 
poor? They are scandalized, perhaps, at what 
they hear or read about some of the Church's 



Requirements for the Study of Religion. 11 



representatives. We join in their condemnation ; 
but do they expect the grace of the priesthood to 
destroy man's liberty, or render him impeccable ? 
Have they witnessed no scandals in their own de- 
nominations? Is the life of each of their min- 
isters a model of temperance, purity, virtue? 
Judas w r as one of the twelve ; yet Judas fell. 
Must we, then, be astonished that some of the 
representatives of the Church have proved un- 
worthy of their vocation, and have failed to fol- 
low the example of the far greater number among 
their brethren, whose lives have been immaculate, 
and whose actions glowed with the fervor of their 
love for God and men. 

And from what source do those outside of the 
Church most frequently derive their ideas of her 
teaching, dogmas, and ceremonies? Often from 
the words of a servant, whose knowledge is barely 
sufficient to enable her to save her own soul, or 
from newspapers antagonistic to our cause ; from 
the declamations of preachers whose eloquence is 
much aided by their inventive powers ; from some 
partisan histoiy, in which men are misjudged, 
events falsified, and doctrines misrepresented; or 
even from the impudent calumnies of some who 
have left the church of their youth, — the church 
they once esteemed, loved, and recognized as the 



12 



The True Religion. 



true Church of God, but which they deserted and 
scorned when their hearts became too corrupt, 
their lives too scandalous, their eyes too impure, 
to behold the beauty of her divine face, and share 
in the benediction of her love. Thanks be to God, 
the Catholic Church bears no resemblance to that 
creation of their fancy which they call by her 
venerable name ! Were our separated brethren to 
know our Church as she is, they would surely 
share in our enthusiasm; but while they behold 
her through the refracting medium of prejudice 
and passion, her beauty is for them but deform- 
ity, her loveliness is hidden from their eyes, 
they understand none of the eulogies she calls 
forth. 

These remarks apply to Catholics as well, 
though not to the same extent. Brought in con- 
tact with theorists and sceptics of every grade, 
they do not protect themselves sufficiently against 
error. At times, likewise, their minds are clouded 
by the false ideas which drift in upon them, and, 
without adopting the abusive language of the 
enemies of religion, they insinuate almost as much, 
astonishing their fellow-christians by assertions 
which would never have been uttered, had a test 
been applied to what they also call their scientific 
convictions. 



Requirements for the Study of Religion, 13 



From these few remarks we may gather what 
dispositions we should bring to the study of reli- 
gion. If in any other sphere of knowledge it is 
necessarj 7 " to keep our prejudices in abeyance, 
much more does it behoove us when we apply our 
mind to the study of religion. We do not say, 
however, that study alone, even with the right 
dispositions of mind and will, is capable of making 
men Christians, much less Catholics. Above all, 
God's grace is required ; but, as this divine assis- 
tance is promised to all, it will not be denied him 
who is sincere and earnest in his inquiries about 
religion. May this book fall in with men of such 
a stamp, men truly noble, over whose minds truth 
exercises a royal sway ; may it aid such in rising 
above vulgar prejudices and following the dictates 
of impartial reason. 



CHAPTER XL 



THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION. 

The idea of God in man's mind — Atheism most repugnant to 
reason — Necessary connection between a personal Creator and 
the duties of religion — Religion claimed by the very needs of our 
hearts — No other than God can satisfy the cravings of our nature 
— Man's utter helplessness in misery — Duties of religion most 
essential, most universal, most consoling. 

One of the first truths instilled into us at the 
dawn of our intelligence is, assuredly, that of God's 
existence. In childhood we lisped this belief at 
our mother's knee, and its mysterious language 
awoke in our hearts vague but potent feelings, 
such as words could ill express. We grew older : 
our intellect, coming forth from its infancy, de- 
lighted in the contemplation of nature ; it con- 
sidered the world of matter and the world of 
mind; it questioned all beings as to their Author; 
and thereupon from them all was heard in divinely 
harmonious accord the echo of our childhood's 
faith, There is a God. 

Such is the belief of all men, at all times, and 
in all regions ; and if any have professed to hold 

14 



The Necessity of Religion. 



15 



a contrary opinion, their words have belied their 
thoughts. In the recesses of their own minds 
there has ever been a latent protest against their 
blasphemies, a remorse in the depth of their con- 
sciences, and, above all, a frightful void in the 
solitude of their hearts. To these men, as to all 
others, reason must continually repeat : Here are 
effects ; there must, then, be a supreme cause, a 
prime mover from which all motion begins, a force 
whence all other forces derive their origin, a truth 
upon which all truths are founded, a perfection 
which is the source of all perfections, — in a word, 
there must be a Creator, and this Creator the uni- 
versal voice of mankind calls God. This idea is 
too deeply rooted in man to be torn from him. It 
may be buried for a time beneath the refuse of 
vice ; but, sooner or later, it will force its way 
back to light, and stand again before him in all its 
reality. 

As we do not write these pages for atheists, let 
us turn away from their blasphemies. For our 
part, we admit the existence of this supreme 
cause, this creator of all; it is our most profound 
conviction, as rational beings. But does not this 
admission involve the acknowledgment that Reli- 
gion is our duty? For what conception do we 
form of this creative Being? Can we suppose 



16 



The True Religion. 



that when God, by an act of His infinite power, 
sends forth rational creatures into space and time, 
He tells them that they owe Him nothing ; that 
they are not bound to acknowledge the Author of 
their existence ; that they are dispensed with 
showing Him sentiments of gratitude and love ; 
that they must rely upon no other but themselves ; 
that, in a word, they are independent as He him- 
self is independent? Creation with such a sequel 
would be an absurdity and the greatest of mis- 
fortunes. Alas ! what would bscome of man bereft 
of God ! To whom would he look for consolation 
in sorrow ; how satisfy his thirst for happiness ! 
No, we cannot live without God. As the flower 
to the sun, so our soul turns continually to Him. 
The act of creation does not banish us from His 
heart. He is ever attracting us toward Himself. 
He still remains our Father, and continually in- 
vites us to look up to Him with filial love. 

Disastrous to man, such disregard of His own 
work would, moreover, be impossible to God. In 
creating the world, God may well establish such 
an order among beings He draws from nothing- 
ness that one may exist for another ; but He must 
necessarily intend them all for Himself, and direct 
them all finally to His glory. To this every crea- 
ture must tend. And as glory consists in nothing 



The Necessity of Religion. 



17 



but knowledge and love ; as knowledge and love 
are acts of intellectual beings ; as, among all the 
creatures which compose this world, man alone is 
endowed with an intelligent nature, man is called 
to preside over all, to govern all, to make all con- 
verge toward the same end. He is to be the 
high-priest of creation, to bring back to God all 
that His love has drawn forth from His power. 
After he himself has glorified God's greatness, 
beauty, power, man is to lend a voice to all nature, 
that she may exalt and glorify Him in her turn; 
or, rather, taking all beings into union with him- 
self, he is to chant with them a hymn of glory and 
adoration to the Supreme Power, the Infinite 
Goodness, the Eternal Love. Such is the essen- 
tial end of man, his most indispensable duty, the 
reason of his existence. Man is made to know 
God, to honor God, to love God. He is made 
for religion ; for religion is nothing else than 
the knowledge we have of God, the honor we 
render Him, the love of a heart which springs 
upward toward Him. Such is the necessity 
of intercourse between God and man, a nec- 
essity that we can infer from our hearts' needs 
as well. 

We have already observed that in the inmost 
recesses of our bosoms, at the very heart of our 



18 



The True Religion, 



life, we experience a craving that pleasure fails to 
satisfy; a want as sacred as it is imperative; a 
supreme need which, in default of all other testi- 
mony, would suffice to prove that religion is neces- 
sary for man. Nothing short of God can satisfy 
the yearning of our nature. In childhood and 
youth golden dreams flit before our fancy ; present 
ancf future are decked in the gayest colors ; the 
world glitters before our eyes with all the bright- 
ness that the dawn of a fair day spreads over the 
horizon : and yet, when we look out from the 
secret bow r er of our hearts, this brightness serves 
to show but more clearly the abyss which our 
dreams and hopes seek, but are unable to fill. We 
reach manhood : there is change of scene, but not 
of condition. Man rushes forward with courage 
and energy in his chosen career; honors, dignities, 
wealth, seem to fascinate and intoxicate him with 
enthusiasm : but even then, — and then more than 
at other times, — a voice rises from the heart of 
hearts within him, warning him of the emptiness 
of that which the world displays before his gaze, 
sometimes even giving him up, it may be, to a 
sadness he knows not how to define. Shall we 
speak of old age ? We know but too well what 
must be the feelings of a man bending over his 
own grave, when, after having drained the cup of 



The Necessity of Religion. 



19 



this world's joys, he no longer sees anything that 
can charm his last days. What, then, is the cause 
of this condition of man? Whence comes it that 
at no age can he, if left to himself, find peace and 
happiness? It is because man is made for God, — 
his mind to know Him, his heart to love Him, his 
whole being to serve Him ; and so long as he does 
not prostrate himself before God, and raise his soul 
to heaven, quiet and blessedness fly from him, and 
the whole world seems wrapped in funereal gloom. 
" Our heart knows no rest until it finds rest in 
Thee," exclaims St. Augustin. How striking, 
then, the testimony which conscience bears to 
religion ! 

We have been giving our attention to the 
worldly-prosperous man, living as he does in the 
midst of honors, dignities, pleasures ; what shall 
we say of him when troubled by sorrow ? at the 
hour of great sufferings? under the weight of 
those griefs which crush out the life from him? 
In the day of those calamities which seem to 
infect the strongest courage, what power, save 
that of religion, can spread the oil of peace over 
the surging waters of bitterness? How slight is 
the support our poor reason can afford ! We may 
say, and repeat it over again, and have it pro- 
claimed thousands of times, that: — 



20 



The True Religion. 



"Not the rage of the million commanding things evil, 
Not the doom frowning near in the brows of the tyrant, 

Shakes the upright and resolute man 

In his solid completeness of soul ; 

If in fragments were shattered the world, 
Him its ruin would strike undismayed. 

All this is beautiful, very beautiful, in the majes- 
tic poetry of Horace, but it is only poetry. Experi- 
ence shows us a far different spectacle, and we have 
only to look at the public prints to discover what 
becomes of man when, without the aid of religion, 
he is brought face to face with misery. Often he 
seeks to remedy one evil by another and a greater, 
and puts an end to the life which seems too 
heavy a burden to be longer borne. It is religion 
alone that can sustain man in his misfortunes ; 
not any kind of religion, but the religion that has 
a prayer, an altar, a priesthood, a positive, well 
defined, and infallible teaching. Such and only 
such a religion can relieve man from the crushing 
weight of his sufferings. Teaching him to bow 
before his Creator, she reveals a distant vision of 
his eternal home ; and in the name of God, whom 
she declares to him, in the name of the heaven to 
which she directs his gaze, in the name of the 
eternity of which she excites his hopes and fears, 
she commands him to banish the grief which is 



The Necessity of Religion. 21 



preying upon his life. And man nerves himself 
to action once more : a new energy springs up in 
his soul ; a new courage supports his weakness ; a 
new life is , infused into his whole being. He 
rises transformed, resigned to suffer, sometimes 
even blessing his sufferings, because he sees in 
them a means of coming nearer to God. Such 
divine effects can only be believed through expe- 
rience, and those who are strangers to all religious 
sentiment can never realize how often tears have 
been dried, sorrows dissipated, despair calmed, at 
the foot of the altar. Out on the open ocean the 
waves are lashed and torn by the fury of fierce 
winds ; but let them glide within the sheltering 
arms of the land-locked harbor, and they sink into 
repose. Thus the human soul, agitated by suffer- 
ing and sorrow, finds a sweet calm beneath the 
shelter of the divine sanctuary. God is all things 
to the soul, but He is, above all, its refuge. Woe 
to him who seeks any other ! He will be stranded 
upon hidden reefs, and become the victim of an 
irreparable shipwreck. 

We may infer from these remarks that the 
practice of religion is for man a duty and a 
necessity. It is a duty, and the first of duties, 
because, among all the relations of man, none can 
precede that which connects him with God. It is 



22 



The True Religion. 



the most essential of duties, for God Himself 
could not have created man without requiring 
from him the homage of his intelligence and his 
heart. It is the most universal of duties; it 
extends to all men, at all times, under all condi- 
tions. And this duty is glorious for man, since it 
ennobles him ; it is profitable, because its accom- 
plishment secures his well-being; it is consoling, 
because it teaches him to regard God as his 
Father. Supported under the weight of his own 
weakness, protected in danger, comforted in grief, 
attached to a better world by bonds which only 
he himself can sever, man does not, says a pro- 
found thinker, exhaust his power in a stern resist- 
ance to misfortune, but meets it with a serene 
and gentle resignation born of submission and 
confidence. Through the sombre clouds heaped 
round him, he sees the luminous ray which, 
descending from heaven, shines through and dissi- 
pates the gloom. The religious man alone, de- 
serted by the whole world, still finds a consoler; 
submitted to life-long sufferings, he still retains 
the grasp of hope. Earth has its heroes, religion 
its martyrs. 



CHAPTER III. 



EE AS OK AND REVELATION. 

War against revelation waged by rationalism — Man is said to 
find in himself every requisite for his development — Power of 
reason; its limits — Revelation does not undervalue man's intel- 
lectual powers — It checks the abuse of them — The history of 
past generations a proof of man's powerlessness as to religious sys- 
tems — Present condition of rationalism — Its theory as to the 
future disproved by reason itself — Necessity of revealed religion. 

For a century past, a very singular phenomenon 
has been, more than ever before, thrusting itself 
into prominent notice. From one end of the 
world to the other, in schools, in speeches, in 
books, in reviews, in newspapers, we hear words 
echoed and re-echoed, striving, each and all, to 
elevate into honor the insurrection of reason 
against revealed religion ; and this in the name of 
science and philosophy. The faith of nineteen 
centuries, which has made the intellectual life of 
nations, scattered hosts upon hosts of darkness, 
crowned man with so much glory, and raised his 
heart to the highest level of the moral life, appears 
in this age, to the spirit of innovation, as a yoke 
to be slipped, a barrier to be removed, before the 

23 



24 



The True Religion. 



mind can enter upon that career of progress which 
is alone deemed worthy of our nature. Accord- 
ing to this view, we need but reason to formulate 
a religion worthy of God and of man. All else, 
they tell us, is due solely to the imagination of 
self-styled believers ; man finds in himself every 
requisite for his own nobility ; he has no need of 
the dreams of half-enlightened intellects. 

A full and lengthy confutation of this theory 
may be perused in the writings of many authors. 
Even prescinding from the able treatment of such 
men as Frayssinous, Lacordaire, and Felix, whose 
conferences are a lasting monument to the glory 
of religion, it would be sufficient to take up the 
work of James Balmes on Protestantism and 
Catholicity, in which, assuredly, enough is brought 
forth to silence the enemies of Revelation. How- 
ever, as our subject requires us to touch upon 
this question, we do not hesitate to indite these 
few pages, in which it shall be our aim to prove 
succinctly that human reason, left to itself, has 
never been able, and never will be able, to pro- 
duce a religion capable of ennobling our nature ; 
and from this fact we will deduce the necessity of 
Revelation. 

And first, we are not of those who undervalue 
the power of our natural faculties, and refuse to 



Reason and Revelation. 



25 



man that which constitutes one of his chief embel- 
lishments, the power, all his own, of knowing 
truth. Far from us be those declamations, says 
Fr. Felix, which, " in the name of God and of the 
human race, demand the dethronement of rea- 
son"; we proclaim not that " this queen reigns 
only over ruins, and bears no sceptre but that 
of nothingness." We admit, and should admit, 
the native power of our intelligence when she 
consents to remain in her own sphere ; and did 
not the history of the world, the authority of 
sages, and our own experience, suffice to con- 
vince us of this truth, revelation itself is ready 
to defend reason against the foolish and impru- 
dent aggressions of certain philosophers. But, if 
we do not undervalue reason to the pretended 
advantage of revelation, neither can we be so 
arrogant as to repeat with other philosophers that 
reason is enough to illumine our every sphere of 
truth ; to instruct us in all our duties ; to found 
a religion worthy of God's greatness and man's 
dignity. For, although we do not deny that 
human reason can boast of having dared much, 
explored much, even discovered much, we must 
not, for all that, refuse to confess that man's 
genius has always failed in the attempt to formu- 
late religious systems. 



26 



The True Religion. 



It is unnecessary to summon before the tribu- 
nal of reason each and eveiy nation of the world. 
We may pass by the barbarous and uncultivated, 
and, regarding attentively the two most polished 
races of antiquity, judge of the need of divine 
revelation by the facts they display to our exami- 
nation. Greece is the first to come before us. 
We behold her great in all things else ; great in 
her philosophy, — the schools of Athens claimed 
the empire of thought ; great in her eloquence, — 
the names of her renowned orators are in the 
mouths of all 5 great in her poetry, — the chefs 
d'oeuvres of the Greek stage will always take the 
first rank in the history of literature ; but, not- 
withstanding this, philosophers, poets, orators, all 
alike failed from a religious point of view ; they 
were powerless to reform the belief of the peo- 
ple ; nowhere were they the authors of light. 
And Rome, the world's mistress, Rome, in the day 
of her glory and grandeur, with her magistrates 
and her orators, her philosophers and her war- 
riors, her poets and her artists, her we see bowing 
before gods whose very names we are loath to 
repeat, and surrendering herself to the most de- 
grading and most infamous forms of worship. 
Nor will it avail that there were men whose 
worship was not so sensual. Granted ; but the 



Reason and Revelation. 



27 



aberrations of such, both in doctrine and life, 
serve to show still more strikingly the necessity 
of revelation. 

Religion is nothing else but the sum of the 
duties which bind man to God. Now, to dis- 
cover, to determine, to define, these duties, what 
is needed? There is needed an accurate knowl- 
edge of Him to whom they are offered, and him 
who offers them. Will you say that these men's 
ideas of both God and man were just, worthy, 
elevated? For them God was not a living per- 
son, a directing guide, a smiling friend, a loving 
father, a watchful protector, a provident master. 
This was not their God. The God whom they 
presented to the adoration of humanity was with 
some, Matter; with others, Nature; with most, an 
unknown being. With those who had conceived 
the highest idea of the Divinity, God was the arti- 
ficer of the world ; but an artificer too perfect to 
debase himself so far as to guide mankind, and too 
blessed to be touched by our misfortunes and mis- 
eries. And man, who walked the same earth with 
them, what was he ? Whence came he ? Whither 
tended the aspirations of his soul ? These great 
minds, affrighted at the task set before them, 
were wont to flit from one error to another; 
now they considered him on a level with matter, 



28 



The True Religion. 



again they raised him to the rank of divinity ; 
sometimes they recognized in him an immortal 
soul, at other times they believed him wholly 
subject to death ; at one time they exalted him 
as the friend of God, at another they showed him 
exiled from heaven for some unexplained crime. 
But while they were thus wavering in uncer- 
tainty, their conduct differed but little from that 
of the people. We see them kneel before the 
same altars; offer the same sacrifices; evince 
the same fears ; indulge the same hopes ; yield 
to the same superstitions. History shows us the 
great Socrates authorizing a superstitious and 
ridiculous observance at his last hour ; and yet he 
had spoken much of the Divinity, the immortality 
of the human soul, and the reality of a future 
life. 

Thus far the past ; what shall we say of the 
present? Has the modern world, notwithstand- 
ing all its progress, been able to imagine anything 
more perfect ? Doubtless it is difficult in these 
Christian ages to determine how much should be 
ascribed to reason alone. Like that magnificent 
star which floods the material world with its 
beams, revelation has shed its light in every nook 
and corner of the intellectual world, raising, en- 
nobling, perfecting, everything contained therein. 



Reason and Revelation. 



29 



Yet, who does not know that, whilst these modern 
men have insisted upon taking reason for their 
sole guide, they have not only failed to produce 
anything solid, stable, and perfect, but they have 
equalled, if not surpassed, the most illogical and 
absurd inventions of antiquity. Some of them, it 
is true, have proclaimed what they call a Natural 
Religion; but what is this religion? Upon what 
does it rest ? At what does it aim ? The results 
of their teaching force themselves upon the 
world's notice ; for never was there visible more 
contempt of God and man, more blasphemy and 
impiety. 

But let us go farther, and examine the future 
as well. Can we indulge the hope offered by 
rationalism to the world, and believe that human 
reason, approaching more and more to perfection, 
will some time or other be capable of dissipating 
the darkness that surrounds us? that the day 
will dawn when men of superior gifts shall be 
able to determine the rights of God over man, 
and man's duties towards God, and thus formu- 
late a perfect system of religion ? 

We cannot admit the dreams of such visiona- 
ries; for, even granting the supposition, ill-founded 
though it be, we require to be definitely told 
whether God should be recognized as the first 



30 



The True Religion. 



cause and the final end of man. Now, if God is 
our Creator, has He not the right to prescribe to 
man the manner in which He is to be served ? If 
He is our end, has He not the right to determine 
the means by which we can reach our happiness? 
And if God wills that faith, with all its dimness 
and all its shadows, be one of these means, would 
it not be madness to reject all revelation ? Their 
hypothesis cannot, therefore, be admitted until 
they have proved that there is no revelation. 
But where is this demonstration to be found? 
How can they achieve it, when the existence of 
revelation forces itself upon the observation of 
all? 

Furthermore. Suppose a natural religion to 
have been formulated by a corps of men above 
the ordinary, how is it to become the religion of 
mankind? Is it by scientific methods, or by the 
way of authority ? Will you demonstrate to the 
people each of your doctrines ? But shall you be 
understood? Do you think that every one will 
be able to follow you through the devious paths 
of the most difficult reasoning ? And were this 
possible, must not man wait for the reflective 
powers of riper age, to gain an idea, at once com- 
prehensive and detailed, of all his duties? And 
before attaining the age of twenty or twenty-five, 



Reason and Revelation. 



31 



what is he to do ? Would you leave him without 
religion in the most dangerous season of human 
life, without a bridle over his passions, without a 
rule of conduct? And should he die, as very 
often happens, before these years are completed, 
is he to appear before God without having ren- 
dered to Him that worship which is man's most 
essential duty? What answer does the rationalist 
make? He abandons, forsooth, the scientific 
method, and falls back upon authority. We 
agree with him in so far as he acknowledges that 
the teaching of religion necessarily implies au- 
thoritjr. It remains, however, to ascertain what 
authority is needed to teach religion. Theirs is 
most certainly insufficient, and in contradiction 
with their principles ; for, if they reject a divine 
teacher, much more is a human teacher to be 
rejected ; and if man does not lower himself by 
hearkening to his equal by nature, much less does 
he do so by becoming the disciple of God. More- 
over, man's teaching has not, of itself, the quali- 
ties requisite for acceptance in matters pertaining 
to religion. First, in order to impose our views, 
authority is called for in us; and hence, we would 
be compelled to admit that talent gives sway over 
conscience. If this be absurd, the principle upon 
which it rests, and whence it logically flows, can- 



32 



The True Religion. 



not be true. Secondly, the teacher must be above 
the suspicion of mistake. Without this preroga- 
tive, human testimony is valueless with regard to 
historical facts ; of much less worth is it when it 
deals with doctrines which are to rule human 
actions. How can the philosopher or man of 
genius prove his own infallibility? Do we not 
know that it is not an easy matter for two such 
to be in perfect accord with each other ? Is not 
even the same individual often at variance with 
himself? Thirdly, the teaching should be accom- 
panied by a sure and definite sanction. What 
sanction can be laid down by unaided reason? A 
religious system invented by man would have no 
hold upon people ; it would be useless. All these 
difficulties disappear in the sj'stem of revelation. 
For He who speaks is God ; but God can neither 
deceive nor be deceived ; His word, therefore, 
must be true ; and, as a consequence, once it has 
become clear that He it is who has spoken, notl> 
ing more is required ; our minds find on the 
instant, and of necessity, a natural repose. 



CHAPTER IV. 



RELIGION AKD CHRISTIANITY. 

Fact of revelation proved by the establishment of Christianity 
— The perfection of effects reveals the perfection of their causes — 
Christianity necessarily divine — Triumphs of the Christian relig- 
ion; recorded even by pagan writers; accomplished as prophesied ; 
defying all human wisdom — Miraculous spread of Christianity — 
It supposes all other miracles ; itself one of the greatest. 

God never fails to provide man with what is 
essential to his development. If, therefore, it be 
morally impossible for man to formulate a religion 
having all the requisite qualities for acceptance, 
we may infer that He has not left man without 
some teacher, with a special mission to show him 
how to discharge this most important duty of life. 
This argument is evolved and urged by many 
writers ; yet, as revelation is a fact, it is incumbent 
upon us to prove its reality. 

Catholic Theology, says Fr. Felix, S. J. {Pro- 
gres par le Christianisme), by proofs open to ex- 
amination, gives the clearest demonstration of the 
existence of revealed religion. This demonstra- 
tion is the outcome of many sources, — of miracle 

33 



34 



The True Religion. 



and prophecy, of the history and legislation of the 
Jewish people, of Scripture and Tradition ; it arises 
from the phenomenon of Christian martyrdom and 
Christian apostleship, from the marvellous preser- 
vation and indef edibility of the Church through 
the storms and revolutions of ages, from the unex- 
ampled fact of her conflicts against all passions 
furiously bent upon her ruin ; it is derived from 
the mutual harmony of all her dogmas and from 
the truth of each singly, from the power with 
which she is endowed to respond to every need of 
humanity, from the manifestation of her divine 
working in the* individual, the family, and society. 
From all these luminous points the rays focus to 
form a light so broad and brilliant as to leave no 
doubt of the divinity of the Christian religion. 
We select but one proof; namely, that no human 
powder was capable of introducing into the world 
the religion we profess. 

Every being acts, and can act, only according to 
the power with which it is endowed, — a power 
which expands or contracts the sphere of its action, 
and enables it to perform works more or less ele- 
vated. Thence it follows that from the perfection 
or imperfection of the work we can deduce the 
degree of the worker's perfection, and judge 
whether or not he is a superior being, worthy of 



Religion and Christianity, 



35 



the tribute of our admiration. Consequently, if 
the work we are contemplating presents difficul- 
ties which can be overcome by no other than God ; 
if it requires a force whose existence we perceive 
nowhere in nature ; if, after having considered, 
weighed, calculated everything, we find it humanly 
impossible, should we not exclaim on beholding it 
accomplished, " This is a divine work " ? Such, in 
truth and deed, is Christianity. It bears imprinted 
upon its brow the seal of a power which reveals 
the divinity of its origin. 

The name of Jesus Christ is familiar to every 
one. Eighteen centuries have passed since He 
appeared in Judaea, and announced His new reli- 
gion. His doctrine was eagerly embraced by a 
few, while others, in great numbers, were ever 
plotting his destruction ; and He, whom innocence 
of life proclaimed worthy of all honor, was sen- 
tenced to expire upon a cross. From that moment, 
however, His triumphs began. That cross which 
had been considered a reproach in Jerusalem, a 
shame in Israel, a disgrace among the nations, 
became the symbol of greatness and power. 
Warm, as yet, with the blood of Christ, it passed 
from region to region, and not only drew after it 
what we call the masses, but it bowed the most 
honored heads, ruled over the palace of the 



36 



The True Religion. 



Caesars, rose above the Capitol, and thence, with 
a might which none dared resist, it crushed the 
false and lying divinities, confounded incredulity, 
and formed the strength of a religion which amid 
the wreck of empires was ever to remain great, 
ever strong, ever lifeful. All this Jesus had fore- 
told ; and the fulfilment of His prophecy was to 
become an event of such historic interest that the 
world could not but accept it. 

In proof thereof we might refer to that page of 
Holy Writ in which are described the marvellous 
conquests of the Apostles. When Peter first 
announced Christ crucified to the Jewish people, 
— that people who but a short while before had 
been furious in their demands for the death of 
Christ, — how many were there not who, beating 
their breasts, implored pardon from Heaven, offer- 
ing to Jesus, with repentance, their love and ado- 
ration ! We might draw from the works of the 
first Fathers and Doctors of the Church, above 
all, of Tertullian, who boldly asserts, " We are 
but of yesterday, and already we fill the empire." 
Finally, we might point to known documents of 
the highest antiquity, from which it appears evi- 
dently that Christ's law reigned in the world 
almost from the moment of its wonderful procla- 
mation. We dismiss all this testimony, and rather 



Religion and Christianity. 



37 



invite the reader to attend to the voice of a Taci- 
tus, who, only thirty years after the death of Jesus 
Christ, exclaimed that there was already in the 
world an immense multitude of Christians (multi- 
tude* ingens) ; or to consider the words of Pliny, 
who informed the Emperor Trajan that an infinite 
multitude of persons, of every age, sex, and con- 
dition, had embraced Christianity ; that this super- 
stition, as he calls it, was filling not the cities 
alone, but even the country ; that when he was 
in Bithynia, the temples were deserted, the pagan 
festivals suspended, the sacrifices abandoned. We 
prefer to recall that famous edict of Maximin 
against the Christians, which was inscribed upon a 
brazen pillar in Tyre, and which, in reciting that 
"the pernicious error of Christianity had spread 
darkness over all the universe," renders the most 
incontestable testimony to the speedy propagation 
of our religion. Proofs might be multiplied; and 
all would demonstrate to us the realization of the 
Saviour's prophecy, a realization which David an- 
nounced in still more explicit terms, "All the 
nations of the earth shall remember the Lord, and 
shall turn to Him ; all nations shall come and 
adore Him: for the sovereignty of the world is 
His ; He shall reign over all peoples." (Ps. xxi.) 
To work this transformation in the world re- 



38 



The True Religion. 



quired a force proportionate to the extraordinarjr 
nature of the revolution to be effected. Such a 
force we seek in vain within the circle of human 
possibilities. 

When a man of genius wishes to bring about a 
great change, to produce a revolution of any kind, 
to win the sympathy of his fellows, he surrounds 
himself with a certain halo, which, by making him 
appear everything that is great to the eyes of the 
multitude, transports, fascinates, subjugates them, 
rendering them submissive to his orders and will. 
And yet, on those occasions in which such men 
have appeared, have the results always answered 
their desires? has the change which they wrought 
perpetuated itself? has it braved the shock of a 
long series of opposing movements, tending, each 
and all, to its destruction ? By no means ; and 
yet the wished-for change was limited to one 
nation ; how would the case stand had it included 
several peoples, the entire world for its sphere of 
action? And such, indeed, was the revolution 
accomplished by Christianity, and accomplished 
in ways wholly contrary to the foresight or imag- 
inings of human wisdom, by contempt of worldly 
greatness, and worldly influence, and all motives 
purely worldly in their nature. Men seek glory 
and honors; Jesus sought contempt and death, 



Religion and Christianity. 



39 



and by ignominy and death He triumphed. Men 
seek able and learned assistants; Jesus sought 
weak and ignorant ones, and, notwithstanding 
their weakness and ignorance, He triumphed. 
Men seek flattering hopes and promises; Jesus 
promised for this world but poverty, abasement, 
and suffering, and even thus He triumphed. Men 
seek more than all else the preservation of life, 
and this, it may be, for no other motive than that 
it should serve as the instrument of their enter- 
prises. Jesus bade his disciples sacrifice even 
their lives ; and by their death He triumphed and 
caused the extension of His kingdom. What 
shall we say in presence of this phenomenon? of 
this progress of the religion of the Crucified One ? 
of this propagation of His empire ? To him who 
has eyes to see, the conclusion is patent. If force 
— a surpassing force — was requisite to effect this 
revolution, and we find Jesus Christ rejecting all 
that comes from man, ought we not to conclude 
that He employs superhuman and divine means ? 
Now, if He makes use of divine means, must we 
not confess that the Christian religion is truly 
divine ? 

The conversion of the world, even with our 
imperfect description of it, suffices of itself to 
prove the divinity of our religion : for this con- 



40 



The True Religion. 



version is a great miracle ; it supposes all other 
miracles; it surpasses all other miracles; three 
reflections which cast a still brighter light on the 
foregoing argument. 

The conversion of the world is a great miracle, 
because it met obstacles the most insurmountable 
from a human standpoint, the most furious oppo- 
sition, the most widespread prejudices ; because it 
was resisted everywhere by human barriers, — 
barriers of ideas, of customs, of nationalities ; 
because it found itself confronted with servile 
forms of worship, which sought beneath the shield 
of civil protection a shelter for themselves, and an 
arm against every new creed, more especially 
against that one which took its position before 
the world as the sole receptacle of truth; as the 
destroj^er of all other temples ; as the author of 
anathemas against such as would not bow mind 
and heart at the feet of Christ; as the religion 
which deprived blasphemers of all hope of the 
kingdom of heaven, and revealed the glimpse of a 
life eternally miserable awaiting them beyond the 
tomb. In spite of these obstacles, these struggles 
and persecutions, the Church gained possession of 
souls; weakness conquered strength, and even the 
blood of those who fell victims to human cruelty 
was not without avail, becoming, as it did, the 



Religion and Christianity. 



41 



seed whence sprang new Christians and new mar- 
tyrs. This, truly, was a great miracle, and one 
which supposes all the rest. 

It is not our intention to speak in detail of the 
Gospel miracles. These are attested by proofs so 
irrefragable that it would be folly to deny them. 
We content ourselves with remarking that they 
are necessarily supposed by the conversion of the 
world. The mind must be convinced before the 
will can act. This will strike us more forcibly if 
we consider that the Gospel was not believed by 
those only who were simple, ignorant, or credu- 
lous to excess; it was received by all manner of 
men, by people of every social condition, of every 
degree of intellectual ability and moral worth. 
Will you contend that those who came from all 
classes of humanity, and were taken from every 
grade in the social hierarchy and the intellectual 
aristocracy of their day, that those could meet in 
the unity of an identical faith and a unanimous 
conviction without knowing the reason thereof? 
that, without asking its credentials, they admitted 
a doctrine made unwelcome to the mind by its 
mysteries, and to the passions by its stern mo- 
rality? that they blindly proclaimed a religion 
divine without having sifted the proofs of its 
divinity ? We must either admit this, — an evi- 



42 



The True Religion. 



dent absurdity, — or confess the reality of certain 
facts by which Jesus, his Apostles, and their suc- 
cessors showed forth the divinity of the worship 
announced by them to the world. And these 
supernatural facts are precisely what we name 
miracles. The miracle, then, of the world's con- 
version supposes all the others ; yet more, it sur- 
passes them. 

We know but too well that the feelings of 
man's heart are of all things the most difficult to 
revolutionize. We can easily understand such a 
change when the new doctrine proposed is in har- 
mony with man's dispositions, flatters his desires, 
and favors his passions. Nor are examples of this 
wanting in the religious history of the world. 
Men have succeeded in becoming adepts in this 
art; but not to speak of the hidden springs at 
work with them, of their armies, of the support 
which they received from the secular power, their 
doctrines of themselves might well prove an at- 
traction ; they favored human passions too much 
to fail in finding hearts that would respond to 
them. But it is quite otherwise when a new 
religion obliges man to mortify the desires which 
he would gladly indulge ; to renounce the jo} r s 
after which he sighs ; to sacrifice the pleasures 
which he adores ; to turn his eyes from the attrac- 



Religion and Christianity. 43 



tions by which he is so deeply fascinated; to 
detach his heart from what he loves, and to love 
all that, from natural motives, he abhors. In 
these cases, the change is not of earth but heaven ; 
it reveals the height of the divine power ; it is a 
miracle which surpasses all other miracles. This, 
however, is what we behold in the propagation of 
Christianity. Men have accepted this religion ; 
have made it their rule of life ; have preferred it 
to every honor and dignity of the world ; have 
clung to it in spite of countless sufferings ; have 
sacrificed for it even life. A thrill went through 
the astonished world when the words never 
before uttered by human lips were heard from the 
great Apostle. Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ? shall tribulation? shall anguish? 
shall hunger, nakedness, the sword? No, not 
even the sword : the love of Him who has loved 
us makes us stronger than death. Sublime chal- 
lenge ! which more especially for three centuries 
innumerable companies of Christians repeated in 
their turn, whilst they showed the world the 
strong hold possessed by the religion of Christ on 
them. Judges clothed with the highest majesty, 
the supreme dignity of the law ; kings and em- 
perors, in whose presence even tributary princes 
trembled, and forgot the awe of their own power, 



44 



The True Religion. 



— these were the great ones of the earth, and the 
mad storm of their anger burst impotently upon 
the " weak things " of the world, old men, and 
virgins, and children. 

This is the triumph of the Christian religion. 
Reason as we may, the fact remains that ; it de- 
mands our attention, and reveals the most aston- 
ishing manifestation of divine power. Every 
effect calls for a cause ; if this cause is not to be 
found among created things, we must fix our 
gaze still higher, and acknowledge in God the 
author of Christianity. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 

Christ's affirmation of his own divinity — Three possible hy- 
potheses — Hypothesis of insincerity excluded ; it would make 
Him an impostor, whose moral character even rationalists respect 
— Christ's affirmation cannot be attributed to hallucination; this 
hypothesis no less blasphemous than the preceding — Cannot ac- 
count for the facts to be explained — Christ the true Son of God. 

The dogma of the divinity of Christ is one of the 
most important of our religion. This dogma once 
overthrown, every true notion of Christianity is 
destroyed ; man is no longer redeemed ; we are 
not in a better condition than we would be if the 
Messiah had not come. This is the line of argu- 
ment we shall adopt in speaking of the mystery 
of the Incarnation. For the present, we content 
ourselves with the declaration of a fact, fully 
capable by itself of establishing our thesis : Our 
Lord declared that He was God ; therefore, there 
is no doubt of His divinity. The inference will 
be made evident when we have once set forth 
the historical foundation upon which it rests. 

If there be anything certain in the teaching of 
the Gospel, it is Christ's own declaration of His 

45 



46 



The True Religion. 



divinity. This was the culminating point of his 
doctrine, the fulcrum of His authority, the reason 
of the faith He imposed. In proof of this asser- 
tion we might appeal to the pages of the Holy 
Writ in which our Saviour represents Himself as 
far superior in dignity to the most honored and 
illustrious of the old covenant; or to those pas- 
sages in which He proclaims Himself the Way, 
the Truth, the Life, the very fountain of salva- 
tion ; or, again, to those prophecies which He 
applies to Himself, and which point clearly to the 
Messiah who had been revealed to our first 
parents, promised to the patriarchs, and foretold 
by the prophets. Weighty arguments can at will 
be derived from each of these points ; we prefer, 
however, to appeal to our Saviour's own formal 
and direct declaration of His divinity. "I and 
the Father are one," He says, in St. John (x. 30). 
They are one in nature, because the Father is 
in Him, and He in the Father (ibid. 38) ; one in 
power, because whatsoever the Father doeth, 
the Son also doeth in like manner (John v. 19) ; 
one in their claims to our worship, because all 
must honor the Son as they honor the Father 
(ibid. 23) ; one in all other absolute perfections, 
because whatsoever the Father hath, the Son like- 
wise possesses (John xvi. 15). This was so mani- 



The Divinity of Jesus Christ. 



47 



festly laid down in Our Lord's teaching, and 
so often and directly did He assert that He was 
God, the Son of God, equal to His Father, 
that His enemies took occasion from it to perse- 
cute, accuse, and crucify Him: " Thou, being 
a man, make Th}'self God" (John x. 33). 

In order, if possible, to throw the light of still 
fuller evidence upon our statement, we have but 
to point to the words of St. Matthew (xvi. 13-18), 
"Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" 
asked Jesus of his disciples. He who knew all 
things wished to hear from the apostles them- 
selves what idea people at large had formed of His 
mission, character, and dignity. And they said: 
"Some say that Thou art John the Baptist ; and 
others, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the 
prophets." That is, when people behold the 
austerity of Thy life, they liken Thee to John the 
Baptist ; when they witness Thy zeal for God's 
glory, they imagine that Thou art another Elias; 
when the} r drink in the wisdom of Tin' teaching, 
they believe that Thou art one of the prophets, 
sent into the world by God to renew the wonders 
of bygone generations. This the people believed; 
but the Master desired to know still more : what 
they themselves thought of Him, and this because 
they were the chosen ones, possessed with a fuller 



48 



The True Religion. 



knowledge of His teaching, and destined to spread 
the same teaching throughout the world. There- 
fore Jesus said to them : " But whom do you say 
that I am?" And Simon Peter, answering, said: 
" Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." 
Evidently there is no question here of a filiation by 
adoption, such as belongs to persons in the state 
of grace ; because Peter's confession, without 
doubt, attributes to Christ a greater dignity than 
that which others deemed Him to possess; but 
John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias, and the 
prophets were children of God by adoption, and 
to these Our Lord was likened by the men of 
Israel; Peter's confession is accordingly to be 
understood as acknowledging in Our Lord a truly 
divine nature, consubstantial with His Father. 
We mention this ad abundantiam ; the text is too 
clear to admit of any other interpretation. 

Now, if Our Lord did not look upon Himself as 
God, He should have rebuked His disciple, and 
protested against such a declaration. But He 
administers no reproof to him ; He neither pro- 
tests against his profession of faith, nor admits 
that such a glory was other than rightly bestowed. 
On the contrary, Jesus declares Peter blessed on 
account of that very confession of faith ; He 
asserts that it comes not from flesh and blood, but 



Th e D ivinity of Je su s Ch ?*ist. 



49 



is inspired by His Heavenly Father ; He promises 
to reward it with the highest dignity : Peter is to 
be the foundation-stone of His Church: " Blessed 
art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who 
is in heaven. And I say to thee : Thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
There can, then, be no doubt that the disciple 
proclaimed the divinity of his Master, and the 
Master confirmed the statement of His disciple. 

Can the rationalists themselves deny this fact? 
Not otherwise than by calling in question even 
the human authority of the Gospels ; and to act 
thus supposes the abandonment of common sense 
to the machinations of prejudice and passion, and 
the necessary withdrawal of any barrier which 
may prevent man from rejecting the most firmly 
established historical evidence. It is not now for 
the first time that the Gospels appear in the 
world; they are as old as Christianity itself; from 
centu^ to century we can trace them back to the 
time in which they were written ; they are the 
work of men whose sincerity was sealed by their 
life-blood, and the facts which they record were 
too startling to be invented, and of too great 
moment to be falsified. Their truth was ac- 



50 



The True Religion. 



knowledged by men of every rank and condition, 
who from persecutors became followers of Christ; 
by men who were too nearly contemporaneous 
with the events chronicled to be imposed upon ; 
too enlightened to be credulous ; too firmly per- 
suaded of the truth of their faith to have adopted 
it in an hour of levity. Nay, more : the early 
enemies of Christianity themselves never dreamed 
of denying the authenticity of these writings. 
Jews, pagans, and unbelievers fought against 
Christ, and left no stone unturned in order to 
crush out the life of His Church. They resorted 
to such explanations of the Gospels as might 
work in with their own fancies, support their own 
errors, or justify their own persecutions; but they 
were never known to impugn their reliability. 
Surely the sceptics of our day are behindhand 
with their method. Their denial should have no 
force against the united voice of nineteen centu- 
ries, proclaiming in no weak accents the historical 
value of the life of Christ. 

If, therefore, Christ undeniably set forth His 
divinity, how are we to account for the fact? 
Upon this point reason can formulate but three 
hypotheses : the hypothesis of insincerity, the 
hypothesis of self-delusion, the hypothesis of the 
truth of His declaration. The mind can conceive 



The Divinity of Jesus Christ. 



51 



no further supposition ; one or other of the three 
must consequently yield a solution of the problem. 

In the hypothesis of insincerity, we must needs 
admit what the Apostle St. Paul denies in so many 
words when he says that Christ " thought it no 
robbery Himself to be equal to God." (Philip, ii.) 
Christ knows full well that he is not the Son of 
God ; but he knows likewise that a certain pres- 
tige is required to further his designs, silence his 
enemies, give weight to his doctrine, and gain the 
respect of people. Therefore, he allows himself 
to pass for the Son of God. He does this not once 
only, but constantly, in private and in public, not 
among his friends alone, but even when sur- 
rounded by enemies. So skilfully does he wear 
the mask that he deceives the keenest of his foes, 
and compels them to acknowledge the wonderful 
character of his divinity. Is all this possible? 
We appeal not to our Christian brethren, what- 
ever denomination may claim them for its own; 
we offer no such insult to their piety; we appeal 
to the feeling of any, whoever he be, whose heart 
is not utterly debased by vice. Who can gaze 
upon that face which caused the admiring trans- 
ports of enthusiastic lovers ; who can listen to the 
sound of that voice which brought consolation to 
so many hearts, or contemplate that life so replete 



52 



Tlie True Religion. 



with examples of the gentlest and most heroic 
virtues ; who, we ask, can after this exclaim that 
there is nothing but hypocrisy in the life of Jesus 
Christ, nothing but deception in his words, nothing 
but imposture in his sublime and most imposing 
figure ? Human impiety never ventured so far. 
The enemies themselves of Christ are shocked at 
such language. True it is they behold nothing 
divine in him ; to their eyes his doctrine, his vir- 
tues, his example, his aspirations, all bear the same 
human stamp; yet they do not hesitate to ac- 
knowledge that it is the human in its highest con- 
ception, the human realizing the ideal of our 
nature, and crowned with the radiance of an all- 
sided intellectual and moral greatness which has 
never been and never shall be equalled among 
men. We must, therefore, dismiss the hypothesis 
of insincerity. 

But if this supposition be abandoned as blas- 
phemous and impossible, and the reality of our 
Lord's divinity be still denied, what remains? 
Will the second hj^pothesis be found more tenable 
than the first? Shall it be asserted that, the victim 
of hallucination, Christ was his own deceiver, 
imagining himself to be what he was not? For 
our first answer, we refer to the fact that he 
proved his divinity by frequent miracles, the 



The Divinity -of Jesus Christ, 53 



supernatural character of which cannot for a 
moment be called in question. Now, God alone 
can work miracles. Shall we say, then, that God 
made use of His power to confirm the assertion 
of His deluded creature, thus countenancing the 
most flagrant impiety, that of man setting himself 
up as the consubstantial Son of God ? Moreover, 
no amount of earnestness on the part of a mono- 
maniac ever convinced his friends of the truth of 
his illusions ; but Christ convinced his enemies, 
those even who crucified him ; for we read that, 
striking their breasts, they retired from Mount 
Calvary, exclaiming, " Indeed he was the Son of 
God." (Mark xv. 39.) And, besides, who fails to 
see that such a view is as blasphemous as the pre- 
ceding? What! shall Christ be denied the com- 
mon gift of understanding his own thoughts and 
words ? Shall lie be compared to the unfortunate 
victims of hallucination? Shall it be said that he 
alone formed a right estimate of Christ who 
clothed him with a fool's garment, and caused him 
to be led in mockery and scorn through the streets 
of Jerusalem? If, then, reason draws back from 
such a supposition ; if, in consequence, the hypoth- 
esis of insincerity must be laid aside, and our 
Lord's affirmation stand forth in its undeniable 
truth, nothing remains but to acknowledge his 



54 



The True Religion. 



dignity and confess that he is the Son of the living 
God. 

There is, therefore, no middle course by which 
the enemies of Christianity can avoid this alterna- 
tive. They must either crown Christ with glory 
or heap infamy upon Him, either acknowledge His 
true greatness or impugn His moral character, 
either confess that He is God or explore the very 
depths of blasphemy. And hence, deaf to the 
voice of nineteen centuries which have bowed 
before the sanctity of Christ, regardless of the 
testimony of thousands of martyrs who have shed 
every drop of their blood for His sake, blind to 
the sight of innumerable legions of Christians 
who have looked up to Christ as the model of 
every virtue, the ideal of every perfection; against 
the monument of reverent acknowledgment which 
men have built to Christ, against all the heartfelt 
acclamations with which they hail His name, 
against every feeling of respect, contrition, and 
love with which they bend before the Cross, the 
persistent rationalist is forced to take his stand, 
and declare that there was no perfidy in the trea- 
son of Judas, no cruelty in the persecutions of the 
Pharisees, no crime in the mockery of Herod, no 
injustice in the condemnation pronounced by 
Pontius Pilate, no iniquity in that death which 



The Divinity of Jesus Christ. 55 



up to the present has been considered the climax 
of all iniquities. This is the abyss of impiety into 
which he is plunged who denies the divinity of 
Christ — an abyss, in truth, which no mind can 
fathom, an impiety which none can contemplate 
without horror. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GENUINENESS OF THE GOSPELS. 

Historical value of the four Gospels — The Gospels known from 
the beginning; quoted by the early Fathers; admitted by heretics 
of ancient times; not questioned even by pagan writers — Their 
substantial integrity proved — No material change possible dur- 
ing the lifetime of the Apostles; nor in subsequent ages — Truth 
of the Gospel narrative — Charge of ignorance answered — Canons 
of logic as to the veracity of witnesses. 

In the proof of the divinity of Christ it was 
necessary for us to touch upon the authenticity of 
the source whence we derived the historical basis 
of our argument. We resume the subject in this 
chapter, in order to give it a fuller development. 
Our purpose is not to prove the divine origin of 
the four Gospels, namely, that Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John, wrote under the special influ- 
ence of the Holy Ghost. Looking upon the 
Gospels as historical books, we say that they 
were written by the authors whose names they 
bear ; that their veracity cannot be questioned ; 
and that they have come down to us in their 
substantial integrity. 

56 



The Genuineness of the Gospels. 57 



Rationalists agree with us in saying that the 
four Gospels were extensively known in the third 
century ; that they were read in all Christian 
churches, and expounded by the Fathers and 
Doctors of that epoch. Moreover, this assertion 
may easily be brought to the proof, as collections 
of the ecclesiastical writers are seldom wanting in 
our public libraries. Now, generations do not 
come at once into the world, no more than they 
do not disappear suddenly. A part of the present 
generation must necessarily have lived with a part 
of the preceding one ; as also many who belonged 
to this latter must have lived with the men of 
the generation immediately preceding them, and 
so on, till we come to the age in which the event 
is said to have taken place. Consequently, the 
Christians of the third century could not have 
admitted the four Gospels, and referred them to 
their respective authors, unless these same Gos- 
pels had been transmitted to them by the Chris- 
tians living before them. To think otherwise is 
to trample common sense under foot. Were a 
history of the late war, claiming for its author 
one of the generals engaged in it, to be circulated 
in the twenty-first century, would such a work 
be considered reliable if the preceding had had no 
knowledge of it? And should the man of the 



58 



The True Religion. 



twentieth century be acquainted with it if it be 
unknown to us, who live at the very time in 
which the history is said to have been written? 
Certainly not. Why, then, when the reasons are 
more cogent, should we judge otherwise with 
regard to the Gospels ? For, not only were the 
Gospels commonly received as historical books, 
but they were looked upon as sacred, and guarded 
with religious veneration. Would they have been 
received and revered as such in the third century, 
by men especially of great moral and intellectual 
worth, if preceding generations had not been 
aware of their existence? 

We might, after this, consider the question set- 
tled. But, as we are not wanting in positive and 
direct proofs, we shall state a few of them, with- 
out, however, tiring the reader with lengthy 
quotations. 

Tertullian, Clement Alexandrinus, Irenseus, 
and others, lived in the early part of the third 
century. These, as well as many others, not only 
mention the four Gospels explicitly, and quote 
them very often, — Clement about 557 times, 
Tertullian 1550, Irenseus 350, — but positively 
attribute them to the authors by whom we assert 
they were written. Let us be satisfied with cit- 
ing the works of Irenaeus, the most ancient of 



The Genuineness of the Gospels. 59 



the three. This father had been a disciple of 
St. Polycarp, and died a martyr, A.D. 202 ; con- 
sequently, he belongs to the second century. One 
step separated him from the Apostles ; for Poly- 
carp had been a disciple of St. John. His testi- 
mony acquires still more value from the fact that 
he writes on the question at hand ex-professo, and 
ascends to the very time of the Apostles : " What 
concerns our salvation we have not learned from 
any others but those through whom the Gospel 
reached unto us. Which Gospel they first 
preached, and afterward, by the will of God, 
committed to writing, to be a foundation and a 
pillar of our faith. . . . For, after the Lord rose 
from the dead, and they were endowed from 
above with the power of the Holy Ghost, they 
received a perfect knowledge of all things. Then 
they went forth to all the ends of the earth, de- 
claring to men the blessings of heavenly peace, 
having all of them, and every one alike, the Gos- 
pel of God. Matthew, then among the Jews, 
wrote a Gospel in their own language, while 
Peter and Paul were preaching the Gospel at 
Rome, and founding a church there. Afterwards 
Mark, also the disciple and interpreter of Peter, 
delivered to us, in writing, the things that had 
been preached by Peter ; and Luke, the compan- 



60 



The True Religion. 



ion of Paul, put clown in a book the Gospel 
preached by him. Lastly, John, the disciple of 
the Lord, who had leaned upon His breast, like- 
wise published a Gospel, while he dwelt at 
Ephesus, in Asia." 

As to the ecclesiastical writers of the first cen- 
tury, we can scarcely expect them to quote the 
Gospels explicitly and verbatim ; for we know that 
men are not wont to refer to what is written when 
what they assert is still fresh in everybody's mem- 
ory. To this we must add that we possess but 
few fragnents of what the} r wrote. Their silence, 
therefore, were it even complete, cannot be ad- 
duced as a serious argument against the authen- 
ticity of the Gospels, when the Fathers that 
succeeded them are so explicit, But we deny that 
in what is extant of the writings of the Apostolic 
Fathers there are no quotations evidently taken 
from the Gospels. The epistles of Clement, Poly- 
carp, Barnabas, and Ignatius, as well as the Pastor 
of Hermas, with some fragments of Papias, can be 
read in English in the first volume of the Ante- 
Nicene Christian Library. We also refer the 
reader to the short work of Paley, Evidence of 
Christianity, or to the more recent work of Tisch- 
endorf, Origin of the Four Grospels. 

Some rationalists deny the authenticity of the 



The Genuineness of the Grospels. 



61 



works of these Fathers ; what if we should grant 
their assertion ? By what means can they then 
prove that the Gospels were unknown in the first 
century? It is not by the writings of the enemies 
of Christianity ; for these never called in question 
the authenticity of the Gospels. The Valentinians, 
A.D. 130; the Carpocratians, A.D. 140; the Mon- 
tanists, A.D. 156, and hosts of other heretics, in 
their controversies with the Catholic Christians of 
that age, derived from the Gospels what they 
thought to be serious arguments to reject some of 
the commonly received tenets of Christianity. 
Even pagan philosophers bear testimony to the 
authenticity of the Gospels. Who has not heard 
of Celsus, Porphyrins, and the Emperor Julian ? 
But neither Celsus, a deadly enemy of Christianity 
in the second century, nor Porphyrius in the 
third, nor Julian in the fourth, was ever heard to 
contest the reliability of the Gospel narrative, 
though they left nothing untried to throw ridicule 
upon it and make it pass for a tissue of contradic- 
tions. We may therefore safely conclude that the 
sceptics of our times are too late with their ob- 
jections. 

What we have said allows us to treat briefly the 
second question, namely, that the Gospels have 
come down to us as they were written, in their 



62 



The True Religion. 



substantial integrity. For, had there been any- 
material change, this ought to have taken place 
either during the lifetime of the Apostles, or not 
long after their death, or in subsequent ages ; but 
none of these suppositions can be admitted, and 
our mind can conceive no other; therefore, even 
prescinding from all other arguments, the Gospels 
are now precisely the same as when first they were 
written. No substantial change could have taken 
place while the Apostles were living, as this 
change would not have escaped them or some of 
their disciples, and their protestations against the 
fraud would have prevented the primitive Chris- 
tians from trusting the Gospel narrative as they 
did. Neither could the change have been intro- 
duced some time after ; because, as the Gospels 
were known in all the churches, the corruption of 
some part of them would have been soon detected 
and rejected. If a mere verbal change was repre- 
hended by Bishop Spiridin, who, as Sozomenes 
relates, rebuked a fellow-bishop for having, in 
quoting Holy Writ, substituted one word for an- 
other, only because it was more elegant, how can 
we suppose that essential changes were effected 
without protestations of any kind? Much less 
could the alleged change have taken place in sub- 
sequent ages, not only on account of the numerous 



The Genuineness of the Gospels. 63 



copies and versions, but also because the Fathers 
of the Church continually cited and expounded 
the Gospels. If any change had been made in 
one, it must needs have been made likewise in all 
the copies, in all the versions, and in all the writ- 
ings of the first Fathers and Doctors, and this 
would have been impossible. Wherefore, we must 
admit that the Gospels have come down to us in 
their substantial integrity. 

After having briefly, but we trust sufficiently, 
stated the arguments by which the authenticity 
and integrity of the Gospels are established, we 
pass to the third question, that concerning the 
truth of the Gospel narrative. Here again we 
shall adopt the line of argument generally fol- 
lowed by critics in establishing the value of human 
testimony. 

To force conviction upon us, human testimony 
must possess a double qualification, both the 
information and sincerity of the narrator must 
stand out before our mind conspicuously ; or, in 
other words, we must know that the narrator is 
neither a deceiver nor himself a victim of decep- 
tion. Should there be any reasonable suspicion 
as to the reality of his knowledge, his asseverations 
cannot remove doubt from our mind; and much 
less can we yield our assent when there is cause to 



64 



The True Religion. 



question his veracity. But if, on the one hand, 
these two conditions are essential, on the other 
they are sufficient to carry persuasion into the, 
mind of any inquirer ; and to thrust aside the facts 
which they thus confirm is to run counter to the 
dictates of reason and common sense. 

And first, the Evangelists were well informed 
of that which thay narrate. Two of them, Mat- 
thew and John, were Apostles; the other two 
were companions of the Apostles, and conse- 
quently their testimony is to be considered as 
that of the Apostles themselves. Shall we say, 
forsooth, that the Apostles lacked information, — 
they who, for the space of three years, had lived 
with Our Lord, listened to His teaching, witnessed 
His miracles ? We may, then, dismiss all doubt 
as to the first condition, more especially since it is 
known and manifest that the enemies of Chris- 
tianity do not insist upon the insufficient knowl- 
edge of the Apostles, but rather impeach their 
sincerity. 

To say nothing of their blasphemy, their accu- 
sation is rash. The main canon of logic with 
regard to the veracitj^ of witnesses is commonly 
stated thus : No man loves falsehood for its own 
sake ; no man, therefore, deliberately propagates 
a lie, but for the sake of some advantage in the 



The Genuineness of the Gospels. 



65 



present life. I say in the present life, for no one, 
who looks forward to a future state, can ever im- 
agine that his interest there may be served by 
falsehood. So long, therefore, as it shall be evi- 
dent that no man propagates a lie to the detriment 
of his own reputation and life, or conceals truth 
when its manifestation would crown him with 
material prosperity and honor before men, and 
merit before God, so long will it be certain that 
the Apostles, who died for what they asserted, 
were not impostors. 

Nor were the Apostles insensible to the charms 
of wealth and honors. Do we not know that the 
hope of promotion to the very highest place in 
the fancied earthly kingdom of Christ, at first 
attached the sons of Zebedee to their Master's 
service? that the twelve often disputed about 
pre-eminence ? that Simon Peter was in no little 
anxiety to ascertain what return he was to have 
for that which, in order to follow Christ, he had 
left upon the lake of Galilee? As to their unwill- 
ingness to suffer and encounter danger, can we 
have a greater proof than their desertion of Christ, 
beginning in the garden, and lasting the whole 
tragedy of His Passion ? And if we are told that 
Peter entered the court-room, are we not likewise 
informed of the shameful way in which he denied 



66 



The True Religion. 



his Master? Can we suppose that, unless truth 
impelled them to speak, act, suffer, and die, men 
of this stamp would have persevered in assertions 
which made them incur the loss of fame, liberty, 
and life, and deprived them of a silence capable 
of buying for them the most liberal rewards and 
the most honorable distinctions? 

Lastly, let us ask, how could the Gospels have 
been held in such esteem in the primitive church, 
if they contained nothing but imposture ? Would 
friends and foes, many of them contemporaneous 
with the events, have, with one voice, admitted 
them ? How do rationalists explain the fact that 
the Jews, these very ones who strove to counter- 
act the effect of the recorded miracles of Christ, 
by ascribing them to magical art, never thought 
of unmasking the fraud of His disciples? Is it 
likely that they, who crucified Christ, would have 
resorted to unnatural explanations of the occur- 
rences attested in the Gospels, when they could 
have easily proved that the Apostles were impos- 
tors? These, and many other no less unanswera- 
ble objections, render untenable the position 
assumed by rationalists ; and, as a consequence, 
every sound intellect must admit the authenticity 
of the Gospels, such as all true Christians de- 
clare it. 



CHAPTER VII. 



AN OUTLINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

The Church and the prophets — Various meanings of the word 
Church — The Church a true society — Its membership not con- 
fined to any one class of people — Vocation to faith extended to 
all; rejected by many — Good and bad members — The Church 
has an authority of its own — Our Lord's visible mission on earth 
perpetuated by the Church — Means to secure this end — The 
Church a spiritual and supernatural society. 

Long before the Son of God appeared among 
men, the prophets, looking with the eye of in- 
spiration into the darkness of the future, con- 
templated therein the grandeur of His earthly 
kingdom. Filled with joy at the glorious pros- 
pect opened out before their vision, they were 
unable to restrain their enthusiasm, and saluted 
with canticles of triumph the New Jerusalem 
descended from heaven, and enriched with all 
the treasures of God's mercy. " Arise, be en- 
lightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and 
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. . . . The 
Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the 
brightness of thy rising. . . . Lift up thy eyes 

67 



68 



The True Religion. 



round about and see. All these are gathered 
together ; they are come to thee ; thy sons shall 
come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up 
at thy side. Then shalt thou see and abound, and 
thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the 
multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, 
and the strength of the Gentiles shall come to 
thee." (Isa. lx.) This kingdom of God upon 
earth is the Church. We begin our discussion 
of it with some general remarks. 

The word church may be used to designate 
either the Christian commonwealth throughout 
the world, as when Our Lord said, " Upon this 
rock I will build my Church" (Matt. xvi. 18); 
or, any portion of the Christian believers — in 
this sense the Apostle spoke of the Church at 
Corinth, at Galatia, at Laodicea, at Thessalonica, 
etc. ; or, the Prelates and Pastors appointed by 
Our Lord to teach, govern, and guide the faithful, 
as when we read in Matthew (xviii. 17), " If he 
will not hear thee, tell it to the Church"; or, 
finally, the place in which the faithful assemble 
to worship God. In this chapter the word church 
is used to designate the whole Christian common- 
wealth and the assemblies of the faithful ; that is, 
of those who have been called by faith to the 
light of truth, and worship God in the manner 



An Outline of the Christian Church. 69 



appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ. In treating 
of this matter, we may take for granted that 
Christ did establish a church, and gave to the 
same the form of a true society. Both facts are 
evident from the Gospel and the history of the 
Christian world. Moreover, both assertions will 
be sufficiently proved by what we shall have to 
say in several parts of this essay. 

In every society we can distinguish: first, the 
material element, or the members of which it is 
composed ; second, the principle by which the 
members are united together, and become capable 
of social action (this principle is commonly called 
authority) ; third, the end which the assembled 
members have in view, and which is the very 
reason of their association ; fourth, the means by 
which the end is to be attained. A few words on 
each of these points may help us toward forming 
a correct idea of the Christian Church. 

Unlike states, which own a human foundation, 
the Church was not to be bounded by the limits 
of any kingdom, nor confined to the members of 
any one society. All men are called to the mem- 
bership of the Church, because God wills the sal- 
vation of all, and salvation cannot be obtained 
but in and through the Church. It does not fol- 
low, however, that the actual number of believers 



70 



The True Religion. 



in any age will necessarily come np to the uni- 
versality of the calling. Man is a free agent. 
Though extended to all, vocation to the true faith 
can be, and is actually, rejected by many. We 
must remark, also, that vocation to the true faith 
does not endow man with the gift of impeccabil- 
ity. Christians may and in fact do differ in their 
manner of life and morality ; hence, we have good 
and bad individuals even in the true Church of 
God. This truth is clearly taught in many para- 
bles of the Gospel. Thus, the kingdom of God 
on earth is compared to a field in which tares are 
sown with the good grain (Matt. xiii. 24) ; to a 
threshing-floor on which the grain is mixed with 
the chaff (Luke iii. 17) ; to ten virgins, five wise, 
and five foolish (Matt, xxv.), etc. But, although 
the Gospel teaches that the good and the bad 
belong to the Church, yet the same Gospel de- 
clares that the condition of both is different ; the 
wicked are contained in the Church precisely as 
dead members sometimes remain attached to the 
living body. 

If the Church be a true society, it must needs 
have an organization, an authority, a government 
of its own. This will engage our attention in the 
following chapters. We remark now with Fr. 
Jouin, S. J. {Evidences of Religion, Part II., ch.ix.), 



An Outline of the Christian Church. 71 

that "the government of the Church and the au- 
thority invested with this governance must of 
necessity be quite other than the government and 
authority of civil society. The authority of the 
latter is, no doubt, of divine institution ; yet the 
form of government, though often determined by 
anterior facts, depends in a great measure on the 
will of the members that concur to form a civil 
association. Anterior facts may likewise, at times, 
determine the subject to be invested with the 
exercise of authority ; but the people may also be 
its depositary, and confer it either on a monarch 
or on a body of men, restricting its exercise more 
or less. Not so with the authority of the Church. 
It has been instituted by God Himself, not' in a 
general way, like that of civil society, but in a 
special manner ; its form of government has been 
determined ; the transmission of its powers speci- 
fied; the main laws, by which it is to act, have 
been laid down by Christ, and He has promised 
it His special assistance." 

As to the end proposed, or the purpose for which 
the Church was established, we learn from the 
Gospel that it was to perpetuate in the Church 
and by the Church our Lord's visible mission on 
earth. For we read, "As the Father hath sent 
me, I also send you " (John xx. 21) ; " As Thou 



72 



The True Religion. 



hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them 
into the world" (John xvii. 18). Now, our Lord 
Himself teaches us that His mission on earth was 
to sanctify and save man, and by this means glo- 
rify His Father : " I am come that they may have 
life, and may have it more abundantly " (John x.) ; 
" Father, the hour is come ; glorify the Son, that 
the Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given 
Him power over all flesh, that He may give life 
everlasting to all whom Thou hast given Him. . . . 
I have glorified Thee upon the earth ; I have fin- 
ished the work which Thou gavest me to do " 
(John xvii.). Therefore, God's glory, obtained by 
man's sanctification and eternal salvation, is the 
end which the Christian Church has in view. Let 
us develop the subject at somewhat greater length, 
and speak of the means employed in the attain- 
ment of the object. 

We cannot doubt that Our Lord came into the 
world to instruct man in the true way of salva- 
tion ; for He is the way and the truth. This power 
of teaching, Jesus bestowed upon the Apostles and 
their successors when He said, " Go and teach all 
nations." We say "the Apostles and their suc- 
cessors," because this power of teaching is to last 
as long as the Church itself, "even to the con- 
summation of the world." Nor can we doubt that 



An Outline of the Christian Church. 73 



Our Lord came into the world to release man from 
the bonds of sin, and to sanctify him. He is the 
Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. This 
faculty, likewise, of the remission of sins He gave 
to the Apostles upon whom the Church was built; 
for, after having said, " As the Father hath sent 
me, I also send you;" Jesus breathed upon the 
Apostles, and said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 
whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven 
them ; and whose you shall retain, they are re- 
tained." (John xx.) But, apart from the means 
of reconciliation with God, man needs other helps 
to gain eternal salvation ; and these Our Lord pro- 
vided most especially in the sacraments which He 
gave to the Church. Finally, Our Lord invested 
the Apostles with the right of governing the 
Church, which right He Himself exercised while 
He moved visibly among men: "Amen, amen, I 
say to you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send 
receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me receiveth 
Him who sent me." (John xiii. 20.) 

From the above we infer that the Church is a 
spiritual and supernatural society. For the end is 
that which gives its special characteristics to soci- 
ety ; and the end to be attained by the Church is 
God's glory and man's salvation, both of which are 
included in the spiritual and supernatural order. 



74 



The True Religion. 



The Church itself is therefore spiritual and super- 
natural. Wrong, indeed, would be the inference 
that, to attain its end, the Church has no right to 
employ material means. He who reasons thus 
confuses together two widely different ideas, viz., 
a spiritual society and a society composed of spirit- 
ual beings. Though spiritual in its nature and 
tendencies, the Church is made up of human 
beings; and human beings cannot associate, be 
governed, and reach the end for which they assem- 
ble, without some visible means. We may con- 
clude this chapter by remarking that the Church 
is no other than the multitude of men who work 
out their salvation by professing Christ's doctrine 
and practising His law, under the governance of 
a supreme authority established by oar Lord Him- 
self. 

Immediately upon this admission that Our Lord 
established a church, a twofold question offers 
itself for solution : Does this Church exist at the 
present day ? Where is this Church of Christ to 
be found? Both questions will be answered in the 
following chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ACTUAL EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Man's works essentially limited induration and extent — The 
Church freed from all subjection to time and space — It is to last to 
the consummation of time — It has existed for more than eighteen 
centuries — This degree of antiquity a characteristic of the true 
Church; to be found in the Catholic Church — Historical proof — 
Wanting in Protestant denominations — Their hypotheses to sup- 
ply the deficiencies in their historical existence refuted. 

Man's works are limited essentially in duration 
as well as extent. Doubtless there are some 
whose vitality and power we cannot help admir- 
ing ; but we cannot promise ourselves that even 
these will last forever. They pass away with the 
needs that called them forth, with the men who 
originated them, with the events which shed 
lustre upon them ; and, sooner or later, over 
human institutions, as over the tombs of their 
illustrious founders, will be read the same inscrip- 
tion. This is the teaching of experience with 
regard to the organizations founded by our ances- 
tors, and future generations will learn to apply 
the same truth to our own. 

75 



76 



The True Religion. 



What we here say of men and their works 
cannot be urged against Jesus Christ. Supreme 
Master that He is, He is able to rescue His 
designs from all subjection to time and space, or, 
rather, make time and space the stage upon which 
they are to be unfolded. This He can do, and 
this He has willed to do as regards His Church ; 
for His words come to us echoed down through 
all the ages : " All power is given to me in heaven 
and in earth ; go ye therefore and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost . . . and behold 
I am with you all days, even to the consummation 
of the world." (Matt, xxv.) If Christ was to be 
with the preachers of the Gospel all days, even to 
the consummation of the world, the religion they 
announced could not fail to have the same dura- 
tion ; and hence, as long as the world was to last, 
and there were men to be enlightened, taught, 
and saved, so long was that religion to exert its 
divine influence in the world. We can be as 
certain of its existence as we are of Our Lord's 
power; nor will the combined forces of earth and 
hell ever succeed in destroying that which He 
has endowed with an immortal existence. 

If this be true, and we know it is, the truth is 
equally evident that this abiding Church of Christ 



Actual Existence of the Christian Church, 77 



has now existed for more than eighteen centuries ; 
that this degree of antiquity is one of her essen- 
tial marks ; and that no religious denomination of 
more recent date can ever wrest it from and 
share it with her. 

And here we are brought face to face with the 
pre-eminence of the Catholic Church. Tried by 
this test, she alone comes forth in the world's 
sight invested with divine authority, and intrusted 
with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, for she 
alone can point to the proud record of eighteen 
centuries of labor, struggle, and triumph. All 
history proves that she is coeval with Christianity; 
her heroes, her works, her combats, her victories, 
all testify to her identity throughout the ages. 
Thousands of illustrious men, remarks Fr. 
Felix, from every rank of society, rise like con- 
stellations upon the centuries; they crowd the 
whole horizon of history and stud its vast extent; 
they are refulgent with the brightness of many 
glories — the glory of learning, of apostleship, of 
sacrifice, of virginity, of martyrdom, of sanctity. 
Every glory adds its jewel to their crown, as 
every age and every country have given them 
birth, for on all sides we perceive the traces of 
the saints of the Catholic Church, the footprints 
of her apostles, the blood of her heroes, the tombs 



78 



The True Religion. 



of her martyrs. Never, indeed, is she hidden from 
our view. She is chronicled from age to age as 
well in the lives of her illustrious men as in the 
institutions she has produced. Choose any period 
you will, of ancient or modern times, a season of 
peace or war, a century which we regard as highly 
civilized or one which we stigmatize as barbarous, 
you shall find none which does not record the 
labors of the Catholic Church, admire her prodi- 
gies, and show forth her inexhaustible fecundity 
in all good works. History, written even as it is 
by her enemies, attests this. Not a step can be 
taken without encountering in our path the 
weighty revelations of her name ; the deserts 
themselves, cultivated and sanctified by her, add 
their testimony to her uninterrupted existence. 

We have alluded to her struggles and victories ; 
is there need to rehearse them? From the begin- 
ning she walked firmly into the public arena of 
the world, and acted her part with a boldness 
truly divine ; she came into conflict with the 
passions of men, with human pride, human wis- 
dom, human power; she stood firm and unshaken, 
while around her empires fell in ruin, dynasties 
disappeared, thrones crumbled to dust ; she out- 
lived all revolutions, and, leaving behind the 
wreck of the past, continued her onward march 



Actual Existence of the Christian Church. 79 



towards the future ; ever replete with life ; never 
more glorious than when most persecuted. 

In proclaiming the glory of the Catholic Church, 
we do not mean to take upon ourselves the pane- 
gyric of all her members. Scandals were and are 
given by many of her children ; nay, sometimes 
by the very anointed of the Lord. We have 
alluded to this in the very first chapter of our 
work. Let us here recall to mind that, though 
divinely constituted, the Church is composed of 
human beings ; that grace does not destroy man's 
liberty ; that man can, and often does, abuse the 
gifts of God. The meliora probo, deteriora sequor, 
applies to Catholics as well as others, to priests as 
well as laymen. Should our opponents go to the 
length of condemning some of the high dignitaries 
of the Church who neglected to reform abuses, or 
were satisfied with mild rebukes, at a time when 
they should have acted with energy, and even 
expelled from the sanctuary men on whom vice 
had claims all its own, what would they have 
reached? They would have added another proof 
to those already existing of man's sinfulness, and 
shown that there is cockle as well as good grain 
in the field of the Church; and not that the 
Church did not shine throughout all ages of her 
existence in the holy life of many of her children. 



80 



The True Religion. 



Moreover, we are not at present concerned but 
with the existence of the Catholic Church; and 
this existence is demonstrated by the very fact 
that not a few of her members did not live up to 
her teaching. 

Let us next pass to the other Christian creeds, 
and inquire whether centuries long gone by wit- 
nessed the existence, the evolution, the work of 
these non-Catholic denominations which claim to 
be the true Church of Christ. Can one of them 
trace back its own origin to the requisite antiq- 
uity? Certainly not. We know the period of 
their beginning ; how they were inaugurated ; by 
what means they were spread. Should we con- 
cede to the very oldest of them four centuries of 
existence, we would go beyond their legitimate 
due. We may, accordingly, reason thus : The 
religion which Christ established has now had an 
existence of almost nineteen centuries ; but not 
one of the non-Catholic denominations has en- 
joyed this long existence ; wherefore not one of 
them can in justice lay claim to the title of the 
Church of Jesus Christ. 

So obvious an argument has not escaped the 
notice of our separated brethren ; the more so 
that it has been often urged against them, and 
met them at every turn of the controversy. Let 



Actual Existence of the Christian Church. 81 



us examine their answer. To supply the de- 
ficiencies in their historical existence, they first 
resorted to the hypothesis of an invisible Church. 
They maintained that before its manifestation by 
the men of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
"the Church existed in the hearts of the true 
faithful ever since the days of the Apostles ; and 
that the believers in it constituted the real 
Catholic Church established by our Lord Jesus 
Christ." This was their reply when first pressed 
by the argument of " apostolical antiquity " ; but 
the theory is acknowledged even by our oppo- 
nents to be untenable, because an invisible church 
is no church at all. The Church was not estab- 
lished for angels, but for men ; to afford men the 
means of salvation ; to make known to men the 
will of their Creator. Men must hear the Church; 
be gathered into the Church ; obey the Church ; 
die for the Church; this is Gospel teaching. But 
as an invisible Church could not be recognized, 
visibility is a condition necessary to these results. 
Without it, the divine plan of redemption would 
have turned out a failure, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ would have been shed in vain. As a fur- 
ther proof we may add that the visibility of the 
Church is implied in its ministry, its government, 
and its sacraments, all of which were established 



82 



The True Religion. 



by Christ. These, as well as the public worship 
due to God and imposed by the Gospel, demand 
an exterior organization. But such an organiza- 
tion, with its due accompaniments, existing in 
unbroken continuity through the ages, is not to 
be found in an}^ of the reformed churches ; there- 
fore none of them can be the Church of Christ. 

A theory more plausible at first, but no less 
incapable than the preceding of being defended 
with the weapons of reason and the Gospel, was 
then advanced by our separated brethren, in order 
to justify their claim to a divine origin. It was 
in part suggested by the relaxation of morals 
which existed among Christians, — a relaxation 
denounced by many Catholics long before the 
reformers appeared, and which the Church tried to 
check in many and various ways. But, making 
no distinction between the holiness of the Church 
and that which each Christian should endeavor to 
reach, and passing most illogically from morals to 
the belief itself, the new preachers announced 
themselves as "new apostles commissioned by 
God Himself to reform the religious belief of the 
world." Better for them to have commenced by 
self-reform ; their own historians would not then 
have to throw a veil over the scandals of their 
lives. But let us not sully these pages with the 



Actual Existence- of the Christian Church. 83 



narrative of shameful deeds ; let us consider rather 
what their charge is worth. 

They styled themselves 44 new apostles." How 
did they prove their divine mission ? How do we 
know that they were not deceived by their vain 
imagination? In the absence of proofs, should we 
follow their teaching, and give no heed to the 
words of Our Lord warning us to beware of false 
prophets who come to us in the clothing of sheep, 
but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matt. vii. 15) ; 
to the warning of St. Paul, who tells the faithful 
that if an angel from heaven should teach them 
doctrines different from those they had received, 
he should be rejected and anathematized (Galat. 
i. 8) ; to the declared history of the primitive 
Church, standing, as it does, in direct opposition 
to their innovations and their alleged reforms in 
doctrines and discipline? Should we credit those 
who condemn to-day what they themselves an- 
nounced but 3'esterday as the authoritative word 
of God ? Should we blind ourselves to the con- 
tradiction of individual reason, with all its liabil- 
ity to error, finally becoming the supreme rule, 
guide, and arbiter in questions of religious belief? 
With all this in view, can we bestow upon them 
the title of new apostles ? With what confidence 
can we go to them ? Can we believe in their mis- 



84 



The True Religion. 



sion, which they assert, but of which they offer no 
proof ? 

They affirm, moreover, that " they were sent to 
reform the Church, which had fallen into grievous 
errors. Faithful for a few centuries, she after- 
ward proved false to her trust ; what was in- 
tended as a source of light soon began to spread 
darkness over the world ; the chair of truth be- 
came the chair of error." Here, once more, we 
have a serious charge brought forward; have we 
no right to ask the proof which sustains it ? Be- 
fore what tribunal are accusations taken for 
granted? Where is the jury which pronounces a 
man guilty when no facts are produced in evidence 
of his guilt? Should we act otherwise when the 
whole body of the Catholic Church is charged with 
high treason to God ? Where, then, are the facts 
which justify the condemnation of our church ? 
For more than three centuries Catholic apologists 
have been challenging them to state the grounds 
of their accusation against Rome. Has one his- 
torical proof been given, one document been cited, 
whose statements could not be proved to have 
originated in misconception or calumny? Even 
at the present hour, in this century of light and 
study and progress, of historical and scientific 
inquiry, where is the man who can convict the 



Actual Existence of the Christian Church, 85 



Church, of Rome of having ever dogmatically 
taught one single error? We hear and read decla- 
mations alone, — declamations which may pass 
current with the ignorant, which may kindle a 
momentary enthusiasm and gain a passing ap- 
plause, but which bear upon them the stamp of 
self-interest, prejudice, and blindness. 

As to the good or bad faith of these reformers, 
— and still less of their disciples, — we say noth- 
ing; but we do assert that the light of history, 
the evidence of facts, the unanimity of more 
than two hundred millions of Catholics scattered 
throughout the world, show to every one the emp- 
tiness of their credentials. The Catholic Church 
alone has lived that long life which is measured by 
the whole number of Christian centuries; she 
alone can connect her existence and prove her 
identity with the Church of apostolic times; in her 
alone we find realized the promise of our Saviour, 
" Behold, I am with you all days, even to the con- 
summation of the world." The fulfilment of this 
promise in the indestructibility of the Church, 
when the mightiest powers have been arrayed 
against her, and her indefectibility in the midst of 
the most subtle and plausible errors, is a sufficient 
refutation of the sophisms of her enemies. The 
changes effected by time, the corruption of certain 



86 



The True Religion. 



ages, the admixture of human passions and sin- 
fulness in the character of some of her promi- 
nent representatives, may temporarily obscure her 
glory, but they cannot affect either her nature or 
her office. Our Lord foreknew all these things ; 
but, notwithstanding it all, He made the promise, 
and made it without limitation of time, " Behold, 
I am with you all days, even to the consummation 
of the world." 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE UNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

The Church one because universal — Union of minds and wills 
— Minds united by the profession of the same creed; wills, by the 
allegiance to the same authority — Necessity thereof proved from 
reason and the Gospel — Unity of government in the Catholic 
Church acknowledged even by our opponents — Catholic belief 
the same throughout the world; identical in all times — This two- 
fold unity wanting in Protestant denominations — Their disagree- 
ment even with regard to fundamental points. 

Although the claims of the Catholic Church 
to a divine origin have been sufficiently vindi- 
cated in the preceding chapter, it will not be out 
of place to corroborate what we have said by a no 
less forcible argument taken from the unity of the 
church established by Our Lord. 

If it be evident, as it certainly is, after the 
proofs offered, that the Christian Church was 
to be universal with regard both to space and 
time, it is no less evident that it was to be One. 
We might establish this point by many passages 
of the Gospel ; but such proof is needless, since 
the universality of the Church places its unity in 
the clearest light. A society may indeed be one 

87 



88 



The True Religion. 



without being universal, but it cannot be univer- 
sal without being one. Hence we see that Our 
Lord did not give different missions to different 
Apostles ; He gave but one to them all. They 
were all to teach the one doctrine they had 
learned, from Him, and to plant one and the 
same religion throughout the world. And this 
unity was to be so essential a characteristic of the 
Church He established, that Our Lord did not 
hesitate to compare the union of its members 
to that which exists between Himself and His 
Father. (John xvii.) The Apostle St. Paul 
echoed the same sentiment in his words to the 
Ephesians (iv. 3), "one body and one spirit . . . 
one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism." Now, a 
religious society cannot be one if there be no 
bond uniting the minds and wills of its members ; 
but minds cannot be united unless they accept 
the same doctrine ; and wills cannot long act in 
harmony unless they be directed by the same 
authority. Therefore, as the Church cannot be 
universal without being one, so it cannot be one 
unless there be one creed and one government for 
all. 

Unity of faith is requisite. If some adopt one 
set of dogmas and some another ; if the worship of 
some be substantially different from that which 



The Unity of the Christian Church. 89 



others render to God ; if some hold certain means 
as essential to salvation which others disregard; 
if, in a word, the profession of a number be based 
upon the denial of those doctrines which the 
others hold as true, can these supporters of dis- 
cordant tenets be said to profess one religion? 
Even a child would answer in the negative. 
Unity in faith is required by the very nature of 
things ; its absence involves an absurdity. More- 
over, this unity must extend to every dogma. It 
is useless to say, "We make one society because 
we agree with regard to certain points, though 
upon many others we differ." This theory cannot 
be maintained, because the Gospel is one, and that 
one Gospel was to be preached to every creature. 
No provision was made, no loophole afforded, for 
diversity. What, too, would become of the relig- 
ion of Christ were we to make distinction between 
dogmas and dogmas? Do they not all rest upon 
the same authority? Is God less infallible when 
He reveals one doctrine than when He reveals 
another? Unity of faith, then, extends to every- 
thing declared by Our Lord, and promulgated by 
His Apostles ; for we read in the Gospel, " Go ye 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things what- 



90 



The True Religion. 



soever I have commanded you." (Matt, xxviii. 
19, 20.) 

Unity of government is likewise essential to 
the Church of Christ. We all know that author- 
ity is a necessary element of society, without 
which its existence cannot be conceived. Take 
any organization you please ; you will be sure to 
find in it some controlling power. Without 
authority, an assemblage of men is only an unor- 
ganized mass, a mere mob. And, as society in 
general cannot exist without authority, so an 
individual society cannot maintain its unity with- 
out some supreme controlling power of its own. 
And so, He who had said, " every kingdom di- 
vided against itself shall be made desolate, and 
every city or house divided against itself shall not 
stand " (Matt. xii. 25), said also to one of His Apos- 
tles : " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I 
build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. And I will give to thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatso- 
ever thou shalt bind on earth, it shalt be bound 
in heaven ; and whatsover thou shalt loOse on 
earth, it shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt, 
xvi. 13.) Therefore, in the Church of Christ 
there is one central, supreme, fundamental au- 
thority vested in Peter, — in Peter possessing in 



The Unity of the Christian Church. 91 



himself the fulness of the authority of Jesus 
Christ. As the Yicar of Christ upon earth, 
Peter was to rule, to support, to concentrate all 
things in himself; or, rather, he was to make all 
things converge toward his divine Master, by a 
sway truly supernatural over the intellectual, 
moral, and religious world, thereby showing 
forth the highest and most authentic represen- 
tation of the kingdom of Christ on earth. 

This is the teaching of the Gospel. Time can- 
not weaken its force, nor the mists of sophistry 
dim its brilliancy. And here we have, as has been 
said, a proof which renders the divinity of the 
Catholic religion as patent and conspicuous as the 
splendors of the noonday sun. In a word, we find 
in the Catholic Church, and in it alone, this two- 
fold unity, which is the distinguishing mark of the 
Church of Christ. 

The unity of government in the Catholic Church 
is so evident that it is not called in question, even 
by our dissenting brethren. While they them- 
selves have no ecumenical head, no common 
centre, no universal source of jurisdiction, they 
know well that the members of the vast body of 
Catholic Christians are as closely united to one 
visible chief as the members of the human body 
are joined to the head. Properly speaking, there 



92 



The True Religion, 



is among Catholics no national church, — at least, 
in the sense commonly attributed to this word. 
The Church exists in different countries with a 
subordinate hierarchy peculiar to each; but over 
them all presides the same visible chief, the Bishop 
of Rome, the Sovereign Pontiff. In him Catholics 
recognize the universal Pastor of the Church, in 
his authority the authority of the Prince of the 
Apostles, in his commands the commands of the 
Vicar of Christ. None are exempted from obedi- 
ence to him. Bishops, priests, laity are alike sub- 
ject to his spiritual sway. All are bound to listen 
to his words with respect, and to comply with his 
commands. But a few years ago his voice was 
raised, not to command, but only to express a 
wish ; yet the whole Christian world responded 
with memorable fervor. Thousands were seen 
crowding day after day the temple of God, sur- 
rounding the altar of Mary, and begging her to 
obtain from her divine Son special blessings for 
him, whom Catholics love as a father and obey as 
a ruler. And while the countless prayers of the 
faithful were ascending heavenward, the bishops 
of the chief dioceses were meeting at one point, 
the Eternal City, there to unite their hearts to 
the heart of their common father, to lay at his 
feet the homage of all true Catholics, and to 



The Unity of the Christian Church. 93 



ask a special blessing for themselves and their 
flocks. 

The unity of our church government is paral- 
leled by the unity of our faith. Turn where you 
will, you find everywhere the same belief. Social 
positions, temporal interests, political convictions, 
worldly avocations, may divide and subdivide 
Catholics as w r ell as others ; but in their faith they 
are one. Their minds hold the same religious 
truths ; their religious convictions are cast in the 
same mould ; their words are the expression of the 
same religious thoughts. From far and near 
voices are heard blending in unison ; they chant 
the same hymn; not one discordant voice breaks 
the harmony ; all, with the fullest conviction of 
their soul, hold the same belief. 

Catholics are one in faith, not only in all places, 
but in all times. They all believe what their 
fathers believed, and reject what they rejected. 
The dogmas professed in the second century, in 
the third, in the fourth, are their dogmas. Pro- 
claimed in the presence of tyrants, in the midst 
of persecutions, in the final agony of the martyr's 
death, they are held now as firmly as ever by every 
true Catholic. The knowledge of some doctrines 
majr, as we shall see in the following chapter, be 
developed more clearly and fully as time advances. 



94 



The True Religion. 



Men of later centuries may have more explicit 
beliefs on points which were contained implicitly 
in those held by men of an earlier day. In com- 
bating error, the Church may clothe the old doc- 
trines in new formulas, and open out more and 
more the treasures of revelation. This may be, 
and has been, done ; but the Church has never 
been known to admit that which she once denied, 
or to deny that which she once admitted as a 
revealed truth. The historical records of her past 
career are still extant ; they are open to investiga- 
tion; and any one not misled by prejudice, who 
consents to examine facts with the impartiality 
which truth requires, will surely come to the con- 
clusion that Catholics are not less one in faith than 
they are one by their allegiance to the same au- 
thority. 

Shall we now pass to the Christian non-Catho* 
lie denominations, and prove the absence of unity 
in their religious belief? But who is not aware 
of this fact ? Does not the very multiplicity of 
these denominations place it in the clearest light? 
And even admitting their distinction between 
fundamental and non-fundamental articles, — a 
distinction which both reason and the Gospel 
disprove, — is it not evident that they disagree in 
the most essential points? If one denomination 



The Unity of the Christian Church. 95 



differs from another, and a third and a fourth from 
these, is it not because the latter deny some of the 
fundamental tenets professed by the former? The 
mystery of the Blessed Trinity, admitted by some, 
is repudiated by others. Some tell us that Christ 
is God, others deem Him a mere man. Baptism 
by water is looked upon as necessary by one, while 
a second holds that the Baptism of the Spirit is 
sufficient for salvation. " You must repent," says 
one, " because mortal sin, unrepented of, shall be 
visited with eternal punishments " ; " hell is an 
absurdity," replies a second. " The Eucharist is 
nothing but bread," says one; "Blasphemy!" 
replies a second ; " it is bread united to the body 
of Christ"; " Yes," adds a third, "but Christ's 
body is present there in a spiritual manner." 
Passing over all the rest, are these points of disa- 
greement of little consequence? Is it unimportant 
for us to know whether or not we think aright 
concerning the divine nature? whether Christ is 
only man, or only God, or both? whether or not 
baptism is necessary for salvation? whether or 
not we are in suspense between two eternities, one 
of woe, another of bliss? whether or not we 
receive Christ in the sacrament of the altar? 

We may, therefore, reason thus : If two or 
more churches differ in the most essential points, 



96 



The True Religion. 



these two or more churches cannot be considered 
as parts of the true Church of Christ. But Pro- 
testant denominations differ on points which in 
themselves are essential, and are practically con- 
sidered as such, from the very fact that they 
constitute the distinguishing features of each 
denomination. Therefore Protestant denomina- 
tions cannot be the true Church of Christ. If, 
then, it be true that the Church of Christ must be 
one both as to faith and government, if it be true 
that this twofold unity is the exclusive privilege 
of the Catholic Church, it must also be true that 
the Catholic Church is the sole possessor of the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven. 



CHAPTER X. 



THEOLOGICAL OPINIONS AND NEW DEFINITIONS. 

Opinions of theologians consistent with the unity of faith — 
Religious orders are not religious sects having creeds of their own 
— Theological schools and questions outside the creed, or not 
settled by any decision of the Church — Different views of the 
same dogmas — Part of the Church in dogmatic definitions — 
Dogmas more fully declared and more clearly conceived — Differ- 
ence between progress and change — Reason of the gradual evolu- 
tion of the Catholic dogma. 

Two objections are advanced to offset what we 
have laid down concerning the unity of faith in 
the Catholic Church. We sum them up in the 
following line of argument. 

Unity of faith, as we ourselves have explained it, 
requires : first, that all the members of the Church 
profess the same doctrine ; and, second, that their 
belief be in accordance with the belief of past 
generations. But neither do all Catholics profess 
the same doctrine, nor is their belief identical 
with the belief of past generations. Therefore 
they must either renounce all claim to unity, or 
admit that disagreement in belief does not con- 

97 



98 



The True Religion. 



flict with the unity which Our Lord intended for 
His Church. In either hypothesis, Catholics fail 
not to contradict themselves. 

The minor proposition is proved by what they 
call undeniable facts. For Catholic divines — 
those especially who belong to religious orders — 
differ widely among themselves. Their teaching 
has given rise to different schools, each holding its 
own system, and so firmly as to consider unsound 
that which the opposite school upholds as the true 
doctrine. Blend together the Thomistic, Au- 
gustinian, and Jesuit systems, and you will have 
something not unlike what Horace describes in 
the beginning of his Ars Poetica; and after such 
a ridiculous conglomeration, we might ask 

Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis, amici ? 

Moreover, should even all Catholics at the 
present day profess one and the same belief, it 
could not be considered identical with that of the 
primitive Church, as the new dogmas, successively 
set forth by the Roman Church, evidently prove. 
To speak only of our own times, is it not true 
that Catholics are now bound to believe the spot- 
less conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 
the infallibility of the Pope ? And yet Catholics 
of former centuries were not held to such belief ; 



Theological Opinions and New Definitions. 99 



they might have denied both points, as many 
among them did do in fact, without ceasing to be 
in communion with the Church. Our opponents 
cannot complain that we have weakened the force 
of the objection : we have only given it a logical 
form. 

We reply that the first objection is grounded 
on a misconception. Religious orders are not 
religious sects, having creeds of their own. The 
Dominican does not differ from the Augustinian, 
and both from the Jesuit, in the same way as 
Baptists, for instance, differ from Methodists, or 
Methodists from Episcopalians. Non-Catholic 
denominations disagree as to their very belief, 
while Jesuits, Augustinians, and Dominicans 
have the same faith, and are united in the same 
judgment, as all other members of the Catholic 
Church. The variety of religious orders arises 
from the special way in which each practises the 
Evangelical counsels, in accordance with the 
special end for which it was established and 
sanctioned by the Church. The questions that 
give rise to their different schools are those out- 
side of the creed, or which the Church has not 
settled by any decision. So long as the Church 
does not speak, each may adhere to his own 
opinion, provided he be ready to submit his judg- 



100 



The True Religion. 



ment to that of the Church, when in her authority 
she does speak. The controversy may sometimes 
seem to bear upon matters already defined ; it is 
not, however, to disprove them, but to unfold them 
from a scientific point of view. In this doctors 
may disagree; the theory advanced by one may 
be in opposition with another's theory, and these 
again may widely differ from a third and a fourth, 
proposed by other theologians; nor can it be 
otherwise ; but as all of them leave the Catholic 
dogma untouched, their theorizing, without be- 
coming a part of Catholic teaching, is left un- 
checked. 

As to the second objection, it vanishes the 
instant we conceive clearly the part which the 
Church plays in dogmatic definitions. Catholic 
theologians treat this matter at full length. Their 
explanations, summed up by Father Felix, S. J., 
in his review of Perrone's work on the Immaculate 
Conception, are contained in the following re- 
marks : — 

"All belief dogmatically defined must form a 
part of revelation, and must consequently be con- 
tained in the divine word, whether written or 
unwritten ; for, if the word of the Church is the 
immediate and living rule of our faith, she her- 
self has, in the word of God, her supreme and 



Theological Opinions and New Definitions. 101 



fundamental rule. The Church, by dogmatical 
decisions, does not, then, create the truth; she 
makes neither the dogma nor the revelation of 
it ; she merely proclaims its existence with infal- 
lible authority. The dogma which authority pro- 
claims to-day, was yesterdaj^ ; before the decision, 
it existed in its substance ; after the decision, it 
appears with its formula, and is of obligation. The 
part of the Church, in dogmatic definitions, may, 
then, be defined, the legitimate and infallible 
declaration of a revealed truth. But a truth may 
be in many ways contained in revelation. It may 
be in it in the terms which express it ; that is to 
say, explicitly, to speak the language of theology; 
and in that case the office of the Church is usually 
confined to proclaiming the divine inspiration of 
the books that contain those truths, which may be 
called the primary truths of Catholic dogma. 
Such are, in general, the propositions which 
express the mysteries of the birth, life, and 
death, of our Saviour, and all the truths formally 
enunciated in the Holy Scriptures. But there 
are also truths in the depository of revelation, 
which we would seek in vain under their strict 
terms ; and yet they are in it. But how are they 
in it? Implicitly, say the theologians ; that is to 
say, they are in it as the conclusion is in its prin- 



102 



The True Religion. 



ciple, or else they are in it of themselves, as 
truths of immediate revelation, but in a sort of 
latent condition, living in shade and silence, till, 
uplifting the veil which covered them, and, emerg- 
ing by degrees from a certain primitive obscurity, 
they one day appear in the light derived from the 
motion of things. Then the truth is marked out ; 
it is perceived, and, manifesting itself before the 
error which denies it, the Church recognizes it as 
her thought, and says, on beholding it, That is my 
faith." 

Having this declaration in view, let us examine 
the above-mentioned objection. To establish the 
want of unity in the Catholic religion with regard 
to faith, our opponents should prove that a fuller 
exposition of the dogma, and a clearer conception 
of it, necessarily imply change of belief. This 
conclusion is not warranted by the facts which 
they adduce against us. Change signifies that a 
thing is now otherwise than it was before, or, to 
speak more pertinently, that the Church admits 
now as articles of faith what she once authorita- 
tively denied to be such, or denies now what in 
former centuries she declared to be contained in 
the revealed word of God. The only conclusion 
which logically flows from new definitions is 
simply this : " Catholics of later centuries believe 



Theological Opinions and Neiv Definitions. 103 



more explicitly things that were not explicitly 
believed before." This is not change in faith, but 
progress in the knowledge of it. 

As this answer might seem to have been in- 
vented for the purpose of shielding ourselves 
against the attacks of the reformers, it is not out 
of place to remark that the doctrine thus laid 
down was not unknown fifteen centuries ago. 
"What?" says Vincent of Lerins, "is there no 
progress in the Church of Christ ? There is prog- 
ress in it, and very great progress, but it is indeed 
progress and not change, — vere progressus sit ille 
fidei, non permutatio, — for by progress a thing 
increases, remaining still itself; wdiereas by 
change it is transformed into something else." 
And, after having shown how the human body 
passes through all the phases of its develojDment, 
while still retaining its identitj^, " even so," he 
continues, "must the Christian dogma, following 
the law of a similar progress, strengthen with 
3 r ears, increase with time, rise with age, yet still 
incorruptible and unalterable in its integrity." 
And to the inquiry as to what the Church means 
by her dogmatic decrees, he replies : " She means 
that what antiquity had simply believed, should 
be henceforward believed with more precision; 
and that the ancestral inheritance, received by her 



104 



The True Religion. 



from the hands of tradition, should be transmitted 
to posterity by a written scroll, the few words of 
which contain a wealth of doctrine ; thus, for the 
further enlightenment of our minds, most fre- 
quently designating by a new word an article of 
belief which is not new " — non novum- fidei sen- 
sum, novce appellationis proprietate signando. (Com- 
monit. c. xxiii.) 

Lastly, it may be asked why the manifestation 
of these truths came successively, and some of 
them at so late a date. For the reason that if 
it were necessary for the immutable character of 
the Catholic dogma that it should be formed at a 
single cast, and spring into existence complete in 
all its parts, it was not requisite that the full 
knowledge thereof should be had at once. Prov- 
idence has for all things its time and order of 
development; and God willed that the light- 
giving faith of his Church should gradually attain 
its perfect radiance. " And as science," says the 
same Fr. Felix, " was one day to reproach Catholic- 
ity with shutting up the human mind in a station- 
ary dogma, was it not expedient to provide suc- 
cessive development for our dogmatic unity, in 
order to show the world how it is possible to be 
both immutable and progressive. Yes, it was 
good to oppose to a progress vainly devised by 



Theological Opinions and New Definitions. 105 



man, the reality of Catholic progress. Philoso- 
phy has long dreamt of progress, but all the ele- 
ments of progress are wanting to it. Progress 
must have a starting-point ; where is that of Phil- 
osophy ? It must have a fixed terminus ; where 
is the terminus of Philosophy? It must have a 
law of progression ; where, once more, is that of 
Philosophy ? For it, the unknown is at both ex- 
tremes of human development. Fatally cast be- 
tween two mysteries, the life of humanity achieves 
nothing but an irregular transformation ; and that 
progress without beginning and without end is 
but the perpetuity of destruction. It is very dif- 
ferent with Catholic doctrine ; it knows where it 
starts and where it is to end ; and its course, being 
between two terms immutably fixed, accomplishes 
the only progress that reason can approve. Ever 
immutable, ever substantially the same, Catholic 
dogma, according as it advances in time, dilates 
its deep bosom, and discovers more and more 
that treasure which has its source in the Infinite. 
Now it dispels the lingering shadows of the past 
from a truth which is to illumine the future. 
Now it begets, at the appointed time, the conclu- 
sions which spring from its eternally fruitful 
principles, according as the assaults of error 
urge it on to the development of those divine 



106 



The True Religion. 



seeds. Thus dogma goes on increasing without, 
brightening with all the truths which God raises 
over his Church, growing larger and clearer in 
the minds of men, but never changing, never 
transformed." 



CHAPTER XL 



THE TEACHING AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 

Catholic statement as to the teaching authority of the 
Church — Rule of faith — Protestant view of the question — With- 
out an infallible authority men cannot know the divine inspira- 
tion of the Bible ; nor that the Bible is faithfully translated ; nor 
be certain of its teaching — Necessity of an infallible teacher : the 
Church — Charge of vicious circle answered — Direct arguments 
proving the infallibility of the Church. 

If in all matters pertaining to religion we ought 
to be clear and precise, these qualities are more 
than ever called for in unfolding the teaching 
authority of the Church. From the time of the 
Reformation, it has been an unceasing theme of 
discussion. If Catholics are correct on this point, 
we have found an easy path to the truth, diffi- 
culties are solved, doubts dispelled, dogmas de- 
clared, without much trouble ; if they are wrong, 
the Christian religion is reduced to a mere philo- 
sophical system, it is exposed to all the vagaries of 
private views, and deprived of every aid toward 
the fulfilment of its mission in the world. 

Catholics maintain : first, that in the Church of 
Christ there is a teaching authority divinely estab- 

107 



108 



The True Religion. 



lished ; second, that this authority is infallible, — 
in other words, that in its own sphere it cannot de- 
viate from truth ; third, that this sphere embraces 
all matters of faith and morals ; fourth, that this in- 
fallibility resides both in the whole teaching body 
of the Church — the Bishops presided over by the 
Pope, and in the Pope alone, whenever he speaks 
as teacher of the universal Church. Protestants, 
on the contrary, deny all infallible authority, and 
contend that the Bible, as interpreted by each 
one's conscience, is the only standard of Christian 
creed and practice. Before demonstrating the 
truth of the Catholic doctrine, we shall make a 
few remarks on the Protestant theory. 

We say that when they reject an infallible 
authority, our separated brethren cannot consider 
the Bible as the Rule of Faith. For, in order to 
believe what is contained in the Bible, we must 
first receive the Bible as the work of God, and 
look upon it as an inspired book. But how is the 
inspiration of the Bible proved? By the book 
itself? Reason protests against this, and rightly, 
for it is begging the question. By critical argu- 
ments? But where are the critical arguments that 
prove with certainty that the Bible was inspired 
by God? And were we to admit the existence of 
these arguments, would they be understood by all, 



The Teaching Authority of the Church. 109 



young and old, unlearned as well as learned? 
And yet the Christian religion is the religion of 
all. Moreover, we would be unable to extricate 
ourselves from those difficulties which came up in 
the discussion of natural religion. 

Again, in taking for granted the inspiration of 
the Scripture writers, a new difficulty presents 
itself. The Bible was not written in English ; 
how do we know that it was faithfully translated? 
Is it by our own inquiry ? Surely not ; because, 
apart from other reasons, the vast majority of 
readers would be incapable of comparing the 
translation with the original, as they do not know 
the various languages in which the different por- 
tions of the Bible were written. Is it on the 
authority of the translators? But these are not, 
and do not claim to be, infallible ; what is more, 
they are known to have often mistaken the mean- 
ing of the sacred text. And even should some 
have, in fact, succeeded in translating the word of 
God faithfully, we could acquire no certainty of 
it, deprived, as we are, of the means of ascertain- 
ing that they were neither deceivers nor deceived. 
Here again we are met face to face with the same 
conclusion : without an infallible authority, we 
cannot be sure of having a true version of the 
Bible ; we are beset with doubt as to whether or 



110 



The True Religion. 



not we possess the word of God ; we are destitute 
of a sufficient motive for assent. 

But to proceed. It is not enough to satisfy our 
mind that the Bible be acknowledged as inspired 
and faithfully translated. A third condition, more 
necessary, if possible, than either of the others, is 
requisite : we must understand the word of God. 
How can we do this, if it be not explained to us? 
And how can the explanations of any teacher 
bring certainty to our mind, unless they be given 
by one whose teaching cannot be false? This, we 
Catholics possess ; but, outside of our church, 
where do we find competent and infallible teach- 
ers? 

It is answered that we need none, because the 
teaching of the Bible is clear. And yet the Bible 
was not clear to Luther, who went so far as to say 
that it was impossible to fathom the meaning even 
of one of its words (Symp., c. 1, p. 3). It was 
not clear to Locke, the philosopher, who, after 
having studied the Epistles of St. Paul, as well as 
the rest of the revealed word, had the candor to 
confess that he could not understand them. It 
was not clear to Jeremy Taylor, the eminent and 
learned Anglican divine, who, after many others 
and with many others no less distinguished for 
their talent, proved that nothing is so difficult as 



The Teaching Authority of the Church. Ill 



to explain aright the Holy Scriptures. Moreover, 
if the teaching of the Bible can be easily under- 
stood, how are we to account for the many con- 
flicting opinions into which great men have been 
led in expounding it, — and opinions, too, bearing 
upon the most vital points of Christianity? Were 
they in good or bad faith? Our adversaries will 
not pass upon their own brethren such an unfair 
judgment as to think that they positively defended 
error. We must say, therefore, that they offered 
their interpretation in good faith, and hence that 
the book, at the explanation of which they labored, 
cannot be so clear as to be readily understood 
even by the unlearned. An infallible teacher is, 
then, desiderated, and this is the Church. 

In setting forth this truth we do not beg the 
question, or fall into what is termed a vicious 
circle. We do not prove the authority of the 
Bible from that of the Church, and the authority 
of the Church from that of the Bible. The 
Church is known to be divine from other sources. 
Its divinity is established by the fact of its rapid 
propagation, without any human resources ade- 
quate to the result, and against all human calcu- 
lations ; by the fact of its preservation, notwith- 
standing trials of all kinds, persecutions and 
martyrdoms, and even the corruption of many of 



112 



The True Religion. 



its members; by the fact of the numerous miracles 
with which God authenticated its existence and 
confirmed its doctrine ; by many other facts which 
are brought out by Catholic apologists, and which 
all go to prove that the Christian religion is not 
the work of man. But this Church, thus divinely 
attested, accounts itself infallible both in principle 
and in deed : in principle by its doctrine, in deed 
by its history; therefore this Church is really 
endowed with infallibility ; therefore we must 
receive its teaching as that of Christ ; therefore 
when it teaches us that the Bible is the word of 
God, it teaches us the truth. And this line of 
reasoning applies as well to authorized transla- 
tions and authoritative explanations, as to biblical 
text. If sometimes we make use of the Bible to 
prove the divinity and infallibility of the Church, 
it is because we are reasoning with men who 
already confess that the Bible is divine ; so that 
we build our argument not on our assertion, but 
on their own concession, and consequently should 
not be accused of falling into a vicious circle. 

With this in view, let us come to the direct 
proofs of the Catholic doctrine. First, we need 
not demonstrate that Our Lord established a 
teaching authority in His Church, and that hence 
the body of the Christian Church is divided into 



The Teaching Authority of the Church. 113 



two distinct parts : the teachers and those who 
are taught. The words of the apostolical com- 
mission are most clear : " Go and teach all nations." 
We are concerned here with the infallibility of its 
teaching. 

So many are the arguments which bear us up 
in this question, that we must perforce limit our- 
selves to the scriptural; and even then we are 
compelled to content ourselves with pointing out 
the principal ones. Did not Our Lord solemnly 
assert that the gates of hell should never prevail 
against His Church? (Matt. xvi. 18.) But the 
gates of hell would prevail against His Church 
were she to teach error. Therefore she is above 
all suspicion of error in her teaching, and is con- 
sequently infallible. Did not Our Lord command 
all men to hear His Church's teaching; to hear it 
with submission ; to hear it under the awful pen- 
alty of being ranked with heathens and publicans? 
(Mark xvi. Matt, xviii.) Could damnation be 
incurred by a man refusing to admit as true the 
teaching of a fallible Church ? Would not the 
command be in contradiction with Our Lord's 
justice, wisdom, and sanctity? Would not our 
assent contradict the most fundamental laws of 
reason ? For it is against the nature of our mind 
to admit unquestionably that truth w r hich neither 



114 



The True Religion. 



intrinsic nor extrinsic evidence vouches for. Did 
not Our Lord tell us that we must hear the 
Church, as we hear Himself; that if we despise 
the Church, it is Himself we despise ? (Luke x. 
16). But if the Church were capable of deviat- 
ing from truth, should we, could we, consider her 
words as the words of Our Saviour? her teaching 
as the teaching of an infallible God? Did not Our 
Lord declare that He should remain with His 
Church all days, even to the consummation of the 
world? (Matt, xxviii. 20.) And can the Church 
be defiled with error, when she is protected and 
assisted and vivified by the Son of God Himself? 

Let us blend all these arguments into one. It 
is contrary to the dictates of reason to suppose 
that God can positively lead man into error. But 
if the Church were fallible in her teaching, God 
would positively lead man into error. Therefore 
the Church is not fallible. For that error must 
needs be attributed to God which man would 
incur solely because he yields to a teaching au- 
thority which God Himself instituted, which God 
bids us follow under pain of eternal damnation, 
and continually supports by His abiding presence. 
But the teaching authority of the Church was 
instituted by God Himself; it is supported by 
Him; it is likewise imposed upon us by Him 



The Teaching Authority of the Church. 115 



under pain of eternal damnation. Therefore if 
we err in admitting the teaching of the Church, 
our error is to be attributed to God Himself. But 
this, as we have said, is opposed essentially to 
sound reason. Therefore we cannot err in admit- 
ting as true that which the Church authoritatively 
pronounces to be true, and in condemning as false 
what she pronounces to be such. The Church is 
therefore infallible. 



CHAPTER XII. 



PAPAL INFALLIBILITY. 

Twofold infallibility as to its subject — Infallibility is not im- 
peccability ; nor inspiration — Infallibility does net extend to 
every known or knowable truth — It deals with matters of faith 
and morals — Utterances ex cathedra; conditions thereof — The 
question of papal infallibility a question of fact — Scriptural proofs. 

We have already remarked that infallibility is 
twofold as to its subject: namely, that of the 
Bishops of the Catholic communion with the 
Pope, — Ecclesia docens; and that of the Pope 
alone, speaking as Vicar of Christ. With regard 
to the former we have nothing to add to the 
words of the preceding chapter ; for, if there be 
infallibility at all in the Church, it must reside in 
the teaching body taken collectively. We are 
concerned here with the latter. 

We take Papal infallibility for what it is, not 
for what its adversaries deem it. Infallibility is 
not impeccability. When, therefore, pointing to 
the lives of some of our Popes, our opponents 
contend that the admission of this papal preroga- 
tive involves the rejection of undeniable histori- 

116 



Papal Infallibility. 



117 



cal facts, their objection is simply grounded on a 
preposterous confusion of ideas. There is no nec- 
essary connection between the two. As any other 
is not impeccable, although he infallibly pro- 
nounces upon matters within the sphere of im- 
mediate evidence, even so the Pope, by God's 
especial assistance, may give judgments upon 
things directly or indirectly pertaining to relig- 
ion, without being divested of all human sinful- 
ness. Impeccability is a gift gratum faciens, as 
the theologians say, and a very special one ; 
for not only it renders its possessor agreeable to 
God, and makes him holy, but also prevents any 
falling away from the rule of rectitude ; whilst 
infallibility is called by the same theologians a 
gift gratis datum, gratuitously given rather for 
the benefit of others than of him who receives it. 
And so it is that, although infallible, the Pope 
remains liable to sin. 

Infallibility is not a new revelation. Therefore, 
Catholics have not to admit that new doctrines 
are continually revealed through the Popes to the 
Church. The office of the Sovereign Pontiff is to 
attest, to guard, to expound, to defend, what has 
been already revealed. The object of our faith 
receives further declarations, but in itself it re- 
mains always the same. This point having been 



118 



'The True Religion. 



declared in one of the preceding chapters, we 
have only to refer the reader to the remarks con- 
tained therein. 

The infallibility of the Pope, as well as that of 
the Church, does not extend to every known or 
knowable truth ; it is limited to whatever regards 
faith and morals. Here again, therefore, the 
clamors of some, that henceforth Catholics shall 
be unable to move a step without the interfer- 
ence of a Papal decision ; that the progress of 
science is impeded; that even civil matters of any 
and every description should, as a consequence, 
be submitted to the control of ecclesiastical au- 
thority, and others of a like nature, are only 
excited by vain and groundless, if not altogether 
simulated, apprehensions. Infallibility has to do 
with matters of faith and morals. These, accord- 
ing to the common teaching of theologians, are as 
follows : first, whatever is explicitly or implicitly 
contained in the word of God ; second, whatever 
is so intimately connected with the revealed word 
of God that without it the latter could not be 
acknowledged as such, nor guarded, defended, 
and expounded ; third, whatever is opposed to the 
teaching of revelation. Consequently, ecclesias- 
tical authority is infallible in proscribing doc- 
trines at variance with the word of God. In all 



Papal Infallibility. 



119 



these the Pope is infallible, but when, and only 
when, he speaks ex cathedra; that is, when he 
speaks: — a) as supreme teacher of the universal 
Church ; — 5) defining a doctrine ; — <?) regarding 
faith and morals ; — d) to be held by all Catholics. 

These different points are severally and ex- 
plicitly affirmed in the definition of the Vatican 
Council, where it is declared "that the Roman 
Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, — that is, 
when, in discharge of his office of Pastor and 
Teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his su- 
preme apostolical authority, he defines a doctrine, 
regarding faith and morals, to be held by the uni- 
versal Church, — by the divine assistance, prom- 
ised him in Blessed Peter, possesses that infalli- 
bility with which the Divine Redeemer willed 
that His Church should be endowed for defining 
doctrines regarding faith and morals, and that, 
therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff 
are irreformable of themselves, and not from the 
consent of the Church." 

Thus matters stand with us Catholics. Our 
statements cannot be denied a priori. Reason has 
nothing to offer against them. Reason can only 
reject the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff after 
it has proved that either the bestowal or the recep- 
tion of such a gift involves a contradiction. This 



120 



The True Religion. 



it will never be able to do, for the simple reason 
that it requires an impossibility. What is to be- 
come of God's infinite power if He is unable to 
shield man from error when He chooses to do so ? 
Why cannot man be the recipient of such a gift? 
Is there more difficulty in this than in the recep- 
tion of any other gift? Every a priori objection 
must therefore be dismissed. The question before 
us is a question of fact. It is this : " Has God 
imparted the gift of infallibility to His Vicar on 
earth, or has He not?" Relying on God's own 
word, we affirm that He has. 

We derive the first proof of this prerogative 
from the often quoted words of Our Lord to 
Peter : " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, be- 
cause flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, 
but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to 
thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I 
build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." This passage, I say, proves 
evidently that Peter, in his capacity of Vicar of 
Christ, was invested with infallible authority. 
For we cannot doubt that the Christian Church 
essentially depends upon faith. Faith is the prin- 
ciple of unity, the fundamental law, the very life 
of the Church, as it is the beginning and root of 
justification with regard to its members. Can 



Papal Infallibility. 



121 



Peter, then, stand in the same relation to the 
Church as the foundation to the entire building, if 
he is capable of falling into error, even when he 
speaks authoritatively, teaching those Our Lord 
Himself has commissioned him to teach ? We 
know but too well that the edifice cannot stand 
firm and unshaken if the foundation give way. 
Moreover, is it not clear that the gates of hell 
would prevail against the Church, were they to 
prevail against the foundation thereof? But Peter 
is that foundation; let him teach error, and you 
give the lie to Our Lord's positive and unqualified 
assertion. 

If this reasoning holds for Peter, it holds with 
equal propriety for his successors, the Sovereign 
Pontiffs. For Our Lord did not build His Church 
for the good of Peter, but for the welfare of man- 
kind. Therefore, the privilege of infallibility was 
attached to his office ; whence it follows that it 
must last as long as the office itself, and this as 
long as the Church. If, therefore, the Church will 
last to the consummation of time, the office &nd 
the privilege attached to it cannot be of shorter 
duration. Hence, if Peter, as Vicar of Christ, 
was infallible, his successors, holding the same 
position, cannot be fallible. 

Hundreds of Fathers, assembled in ecumenical 



122 



The True Religion. 



councils, have supported the same doctrine, and 
solemnly declared that Peter abides in the person 
of his successors. The limits of this work do not 
allow us to quote them extensively; but who does 
not know that the Fathers of the Fourth General 
Council exclaimed, " Through Leo, Peter has 
spoken " ? Did not the Fathers of the Sixth 
Council express the same conviction when they 
said : " It appears to us paper and ink ; but, 
through Agatho, Peter has spoken. Therefore, we 
leave it to thee to decide what is to be done, be- 
cause thou standest upon the immovable rock of 
faith " ? 

The conclusiveness of this argument was ad- 
mitted even by Bossuet. We read the following 
passage in his discourse addressed to the French 
Bishops : " This noble confession merited for 
Peter the honor of being selected as the founda- 
tion-stone of the Church. But the power con- 
ferred by this choice upon a mortal man cannot 
be supposed to have ceased with Peter ; because 
the foundation of a building designed to last 
forever cannot be subject to the ravage of time. 
Therefore, Peter will always live in his successors, 
always speak from his chair. Such is the doctrine 
of the Holy Fathers ; such the declarations of the 
six hundred and thirty Bishops assembled in the 



Papal Infallibility. 



123 



Council of Chalcedon. St. Paul, who had been 
rapt to the third heaven, bowed to the decision of 
Peter, to give an example to after ages. A like 
disposition to abide by the infallible oracle of the 
Holy See must ever distinguish the faithful sons 
of the Church. Every one, no matter how learned 
or how holy, even though he w r ere another Paul, 
owes unfeigned allegiance to Peter. The Church 
of Rome, taught by Peter and his successors, never 
saw error spring up in her bosom. She has always 
preserved her virginity, and therefore her Chris- 
tian faith; and Peter still continues to be, in his 
successors, the foundation of^the Church. Such 
has ever been the verdict of the General Councils 
of Africa, of Greece, of France, of the whole 
Church, 4 from the rising of the sun to the going 
down of the same.' " 

A proof more direct still of this papal preroga- 
tive is contained in the twenty-second chapter of 
St. Luke. We read that " there was a strife among 
them [the apostles], which of them seemed to be 
greater." Our Lord checked their ambition, un- 
folded the true greatness of humility, and spoke 
of that supernatural kingdom where they were to 
sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel. But after having turned their mind away 
from all merely human greatness, Our Saviour 



124 



The True Religion. 



clearly manifested who was to be the greatest 
among them, by those memorable words: "Simon, 
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you — 
vos —-that he may sift you as wheat. But I have 
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou, 
being once converted, confirm thy brethren." If 
we do not distort these words of Christ into an 
unnatural meaning, we must admit: first, that in 
Our Lord's prayer there is question of steadfast- 
ness in faith, and consequently of infallibility; 
second, that Our Lord's words are addressed to 
Peter, and not to the Church, nor to the Apostles, 
though both the Apostles and the Church were to 
be benefited by what was bestowed upon Peter; 
third, that Peter is considered in his capacity of 
Vicar of Christ, and therefore the declaration made 
in his favor, and the command given him, regard 
his successors as well. Let us strive to bring out 
clearly these three points. 

We say, first, that in this passage there is ques- 
tion of infallibility. For infallibility is nothing 
else but a supernatural gift b}^ which the recipi- 
ent is shielded from all error against faith. But 
— a) this is clearly expressed in the words, "that 
thy faith fail not " ; 6) it is implied in the com- 
mand to confirm his brethren ; c) it is supposed 
in the very failure of Satan's attempts to destroy 



Papal Infallibility. 



125 



the Church, which is personified in the Apostles, 
and which depends essentially upon faith. 

Neither can we doubt that the above prayer 
and injunction have immediate relation to Peter. 
His name is specified, and emphasized by the repe- 
tition, Simon, Simon ; his person is singled out by 
the pronouns, for thee, thy faith, thou confirm thy 
brethren ; it is most unmistakably asserted in the 
very distinction made between him who was to 
confirm his brethren, and the brethren who were 
to be confirmed by him. Were a testator to speak 
with the same precision of terms as Christ did on 
this occasion, it would be folly to contest his will 
upon the plea that the heir is not clearly desig- 
nated ; greater would be the folly of him who 
should give any other interpretation to the clear 
and precise words of Christ. 

Many w^ords are not needed to prove our third 
assertion ; namely, that this privilege was bestowed 
upon Peter in his capacity of Christ's Vicar on 
earth. The Church was represented by the Apos- 
tles ; they, no less than Peter, were the object of 
the hatred of Satan. This Our Lord explicitly 
affirmed: Satan hath desired to have you, that he 
may sift you as wheat. The temptation is com- 
mon, but the prayer was offered for Peter alone; 
not because Our Lord was less solicitous for the 



126 



The True Religion. 



rest of the Apostles, says Bossuet, but because by 
strengthening the head He wished to prevent the 
rest from staggering. Now this duty of confirm- 
ing his brethren was to last as long as the Church; 
and Peter, accordingly, abides always in his succes- 
sors ; therefore, if, like Peter, they have to con- 
firm their brethren, like Peter, also, they are infalli- 
ble. Strange, indeed, would it be to suppose that 
the doctrinal infallibility of the Head of the 
Church should cease just when the need becomes 
greater and more urgent. Christ would in this 
supposition have rendered His first vicar infallible, 
him who had been taught by the Master Himself, 
and denied this divine assistance to all the rest of 
His vicars on earth, when in their times the 
dangers were to be greater; when false science 
was to use its most deadly weapons against reve- 
lation ; when Satan was to aim at destroying the 
Church, no longer with the sword of persecution, 
but with the venom of heresy. If this conse- 
quence be absurd, our position is unassailable. 
Every Pope may then exclaim with Innocent III.: 
"Were I not strong in the faith, how could I 
confirm others in the faith ? Yet, this belongs to 
my office, as is evident from the words of Christ : 
'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and 
thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.' " 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CHTJKCH AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 

The Church foremost in fostering the progress of human 
knowledge — It feels no terror in presence of the true and evident 
conclusions of science — Causes of the seeming contradiction be- 
tween science and revelation — The doctrines of the Church not 
always understood and set forth as the Church holds them — 
Teaching of geology as to the formation of the world not dis- 
proved by the Church — Systems of modern biologists concerning 
the origin of man — Law of evolution unfounded — True view of 
the question. 

Has science anything to fear from the doctrinal 
teaching of the Church ? The answer which 
impartial history furnishes should be more than 
sufficient to silence the clamors of some few 
modern scientists ; for the Church has always 
been foremost in fostering the progress of all 
branches of knowledge. Error alone fears the 
light of truth ; and consequently as the teaching 
both of revelation and of the Church is placed 
beyond the suspicion of error, it feels no terror in 
presence of the true and evident conclusions of 
science ; and these, on their part, cannot but find 
support in the doctrines of the Church and of 
revelation. As this statement is questioned by 

127 



128 



The True Religion. 



some, it may not be out of place here to submit 
the following reflections to our impartial reader. 

True as it is that science is knowledge, yet not 
every kind of knowledge is scientific. To be so, 
knowledge has to give rest to the mind; it must 
be' certain. Logicians teach that certainty is 
attained only when all fear of error is removed, 
which happens only when the truth is rendered 
manifest to the mind ; in other words, when the 
proposition contradictory to that which is held as 
certain is shown to be impossible. Now, natural 
sciences are built on the foundation of facts ; 
their conclusions or their principles, therefore, to 
be certain, ought to be the evident outcome of un- 
deniable facts. If either the facts are not to be 
credited, or the deductions do not flow necessarily 
from them, we may have opinions, hypotheses, 
theories, more or less probable, but not scientific 
conclusions. Supposing, however, that the con- 
clusions are really scientific, they can in no way 
be in contradiction with an infallible teaching 
distinct from, and superior to, that of science, 
unless we are willing to admit that truth can run 
counter to truth. An appearance of contradic- 
tion may arise from either of two causes, either 
from the fact that the doctrines of the Church 
are not understood and set forth as the Church 



The Church and the Natural Sciences. 129 



really holds them, or from mistaking the vain de- 
vices and opinions of men for evident and unas- 
sailable principles. Let us exemplify. 

Most geologists explain the formation and 
actual constitution of the world, not by an imme- 
diate intervention of the Creator, but hy the slow 
operation of inorganic matter itself. They conse- 
quently teach that millions of years must have 
elapsed before this earth became a fit habitation 
for man, and that man did not appear on earth, 
until millions of years had passed after the matter 
of the world was created. How far this is proved, 
we do not here inquire. Men thoroughly versed 
in geology look upon the theory as probable, 
but not as certain. As we ourselves share the 
views of modern geologists on this point, we do 
not attempt to cast any doubt upon its truth. 
This theory, we are told by some, is contradicted 
by revelation, "because we read in Genesis that 
the world was made in six days." That six days 
are mentioned in the Bible we do not deny; but 
does the Bible say anything definite concerning 
the nature of these days? Or did the Church 
ever pronounce that these days are necessarily to 
be looked upon as days of twenty-four hours each? 
If neither the Bible, nor the Church expounding 
the Bible, limits the duration of these days to 



130 



The True Religion. 



twenty-four hours, what becomes of the asserted 
antagonism between Science and Religion. 

Nor can our opponents exclaim that the Doc- 
tors and Fathers of the Church universally look 
upon the days of Genesis as ordinary days, and 
that, therefore, their explanation contains the 
Church's teaching. Such an objection would be 
unfounded. Who is not acquainted with the fact 
that St. Augustin explained the days of creation 
allegorically, and held that the world was created 
in an instant? (De Civitate Dei, lib. ii. c. 6.) 
And this opinion did not originate and die with 
the great African Doctor. It was also defended 
by Clement Alexandrinns (lib. vi. Stromat.) ; by 
Origen (lib. vi. Contra Cehum) ; by Athanasius 
(Orat. 3 cont. Arianos) ; by Isidore of Spain (lib. 
i. de Summo Bono) ; to say nothing of more recent 
theologians of high standing, such as Albertus 
Magnus, Cardinal Noris, Berti, and others. This 
opinion met with more opponents than defenders ; 
yet the Church never pronounced it untenable. 
Much less can the Church be said to have objected 
to the theory of modern geologists. We can count 
scores of theologians who entered the field pre- 
cisely in order to defend it, and prove that neither 
the Bible nor the Church in its teaching op- 
poses, on this point, the views of modern science. 



The Church and the Natural Sciences. 131 



This is one case out of many in which the antag- 
onism between science and revelation is set forth 
by those who have previously neglected to ascer- 
tain what the Church really holds. 

Let us now pass to the second cause of this 
seeming contradiction. An example will bring it 
clearly before our readers. Biologists, if they 
are not materialists, grant that man's soul was 
produced by the immediate action of the Creator, 
but deny all immediate action of God with regard 
to man's body. They profess to trace a certain 
Law of Development in all organic nature, work- 
ing through secondary causes, without the inter- 
vention of a personal Creator ; and to this law 
they attribute the transformation of inferior spe- 
cies of living beings into more and more perfect 
species, till they reach the climax in giving us 
man. According to this theory, man's body was 
not produced immediately by God ; it came from 
the gradual and progressive evolution of some 
inferior animal. This teaching is clear, unmis- 
takable ; but no less clear, no less unmistakable, 
is the teaching of revelation. We read in Gene- 
sis (c. ii.) : 44 And the Lord God formed man out 
of slime of the earth, and breathed into his face 
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. 
. . . The Lord cast a deep sleep upon Adam ; 



132 



The True Religion, 



and when he was fast asleep, He took one of his 
ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God 
built the rib which He took from Adam into a 
woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam 
said, This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of 
my flesh ; she shall be called woman, because she 
was taken out of man." With these words in 
view, can we deny the immediate action of God 
in the production of man's body? 

And Genesis is not the only book in which this 
immediate action is stated. Do we not read in 
Ecclesiasticus that " God created man of the 
earth," and " created of him a helpmate like to 
himself, and gave them counsel, and tongue, and 
eyes, and ears, and a heart to devise " ? (Ecclus. 
xii.) Does not our Lord Himself say (Matt, 
xix.), "Have ye not read that He who made man 
in the beginning, made him male and female?" If 
these words do not point out the immediate action 
of God, what do they signify? Shall we say that 
man's formation is attributed to God only in so 
far that He produced that lower type of life, the 
gradual and progressive evolution of which gives 
us man? But then, pointing to any work of 
human production, we might say with equal 
appropriateness, " God made it " ; for from God 
man holds his power. The teaching of the Bible 



The Church and the Natural Sciences. 133 



is clear ; and so unmistakably does it express that 
man's body was immediately produced by God, 
and so generally do the Fathers and Doctors of 
the Church concur in the same, that many theo- 
logians maintain that " the doctrine affirming that 
man's body came from God's immediate action 
belongs to divine faith." 

Is science, then, opposed to revelation ? Scien- 
tists are, but not science; and this because their 
conclusions are not scientific. True science is 
based upon certainty ; its conclusions are, as we 
said, the evident outcome of undeniable facts ; 
and the conclusions arrived at by biologists are 
unfounded. That Ave may not be supposed to 
speak a priori, let us confirm our assertion by 
those of competent men of science. 

Prof. Wywille Thompson, F. R. S., says: "So 
far as practical naturalists are concerned, species 
are permanent within the narrow limits of varia- 
tion ; and it would introduce an element of infinite 
confusion and error, if we were to regard them in 
any other light. . . . During the whole period of 
recorded human observation, not one single in- 
stance of the change of one species into another 
has been detected; and, singular to say, in succes- 
sive geological formations, although new species 
are constantly appearing, and there is abundant 



134 



The True Religion. 



evidence of progressive change, no single case has 
3*et been observed of one species passing through 
a series of inappreciable modifications into an- 
other.*' (Nature, Nov. 9, 1871.) Thomas Wright 
writes thus in the same periodical (Aug. 26, 1875) : 
" In these remarks, I have carefully avoided any 
allusion to the origin of species, because geology 
suggests no theory of natural causes, and paleon- 
tology affords no support to the hypothesis which 
seeks by a system of evolution to derive all the 
varied forms of organic life from pre-existing 
organisms of a lower type. As far as I have been 
able to read the record of the rocks, I confess I 
have failed to discover any lineal series among the 
vast assemblage of extinct species, which might 
form a basis and lend reliable biological support 
to such a theory." Agassiz did not hesitate to 
say that "Darwin's works, and those of his follow- 
ers, have added nothing new to our previous 
knowledge concerning the origin of man and his 
associates in domestic life." (Atlantic Monthly, 
January, 1874.) Finally, the Contemporary Review 
(December, 1876) contains several papers from 
the pen of Charles Elam, M.D., in which the same 
matter is dwelt upon. After having submitted 
the facts of modern geology to the strictest analy- 
sis, and found them wanting, the author concludes 



The Church and the Natural Sciences. 135 



thus: "The conclusions which necessarily flow 
from the foregoing observations may be briefly 
summed up in one syllogism, embracing not only 
natural selection, but also the larger theme of or- 
ganic evolution generally. Without verification, 
a theoretic conception is a mere figment of the 
intellect; but the theory of organic evolution is an 
unverified theoretic conception : therefore, organic 
evolution is a mere figment of the intellect." 

Let us now come to a conclusion. The reader 
of these few pages may either be a rationalist, or a 
non-Catholic Christian, or a loyal son of the Cath- 
olic Church. As rationalists disregard all revela- 
tion, they cannot pronounce upon this question 
but by following the teaching of reason. They 
find themselves between two alternatives. They 
must consequently examine the reasons of each. 
Geologists give none which are truly conclusive, 
— nay, more, none which even render their opinion 
probable. With regard to the Catholic view, we 
invite them to examine the grounds of our belief. 
Until they have done this, their only conclusion 
can be a hypothetical one; it is this: "If the 
Bible be really the work of God, the opinion of 
modern evolution, especially as extended to man, 
is necessarily false." Non-Catholics have to decide 
the question by the teaching of the Bible, as it 



136 



The True Religion. 



approves itself to their individual reason ; but 
even then the immediate formation of man's body 
by a personal creator cannot be denied ; therefore, 
unless they wish to place the unfounded opinions 
of fallible men above what they know to be the 
revelation of an infallible God, they must reject 
the system of evolution. But loyal sons of the 
Catholic Church must of necessity take the teach- 
ing of the Church for their guide. True it is that 
the Church has issued no formal definition of faith 
concerning this point, but Catholics are not "free 
to admit or reject whatever the Church has not 
as yet explicitly defined to be a revealed dogma 
of faith." The 22d proposition of the Syllabus 
condemns such a statement. There are Catholic 
doctrines which cannot be denied, and of this kind 
is the proposition "that man's body was immedi- 
ately produced by God." 

That the Church may not be accused of under- 
valuing science, or hindering its progress, we cite, 
in concluding this chapter, two paragraphs from 
the Vatican Council : " So far is the Church from 
opposing the culture of human arts and sciences 
that she rather aids and promotes it in many ways. 
For she is not ignorant of, nor does she despise, 
the advantages which flow from them to the life 
of men ; on the contrary, she acknowledges that, 



The Church and the Natural Sciences, 137 



as they sprang from God, the Lord of knowledge, 
so, if they be rightly pursued, they will, through 
the aid of His grace, lead to God. Nor does she 
forbid any of those sciences the use of its own 
principles and its own method within its proper 
sphere ; but, recognizing this reasonable freedom, 
she only takes care that they may not, by contra- 
dicting God's teaching, fall into errors, or, over- 
stepping their due limits, invade and throw into 
confusion the domain of faith. 

"For the doctrine of faith revealed by God has 
not been proposed, like some philosophical discov- 
ery, to be made perfect by human ingenuity; but 
it has been delivered to the Spouse of Christ as a 
divine deposit, to be faithfully guarded and unerr- 
ingly set forth. Hence, all tenets of holy faith 
are to be explained always according to the sense 
and meaning of the Church; nor is it ever lawful 
to depart therefrom under pretence or color of 
more enlightened explanation. Therefore, as 
generations and centuries roll on, let the under- 
standing, knowledge, and wisdom of each and 
every one, of individuals and of the whole Church, 
grow apace, and increase exceedingly ; yet only in 
its kind, — that is to say, retaining pure and invio- 
late the sense and meaning and belief of the same 
doctrine." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SALVATION OUT OF THE CHURCH. 

Eternal salvation can only come through our Lord Jesus Christ 
— Necessity of belonging to the one church He established — Soul 
and Body of the Church — Union with the Soul of the Church 
essential to salvation — Necessity of belonging to the Body of the 
Church — Ignorance of the true religion may offer no obstacle to 
salvation — Invincible ignorance ; how far possible in the present 
state of the world — Reasons why non-Catholic Christians should 
examine their religious convictions — Wh at if good faith be 
wanting. 

Now at length are we brought face to face with 
the much debated and much more misunderstood 
question of salvation out of the Church. No one 
fails to see its importance. We trust that it will 
appear just and reasonable when viewed in its 
true light. 

Whatever be the differences which exist be- 
tween Christian denominations, they must all 
necessarily agree in this fundamental principle, 
that eternal salvation can only come through Our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Those who profess the so- 
called Natural Religion will not admit this ; pride 
or ignorance may prevent them from seeing the 

138 



Salvation out of the Church. 139 



necessity of a revelation ; but assuredly no true 
Christian can ever consistently maintain that 
there is any way of reaching heaven except that 
which the religion of Christ points out. There- 
fore, if the Catholic doctrine with regard to salva- 
tion be expressed thus : " Out of the Church 
established by Our Lord, there is no salvation," 
that doctrine must claim the assent of all who 
bear the title of Christians. 

Moreover, we know that Our Lord established 
but one church. For, when He gave full au- 
thority to His Apostles, and sent them into the 
world as He Himself had been sent by His 
Father, He commissioned them to teach all 
nations, and imposed upon every man, under 
pain of damnation, the duty of receiving their 
teaching. If, then, the same Gospel was to be 
preached to all nations, and if all alike were to 
follow its teaching, it cannot be denied that all 
men should profess the same belief, obey the same 
authority, render to God the same worship, and 
thus constitute that one religion, out of which 
none can be saved. But we have previously 
demonstrated that this one church is and can be 
no other than the Catholic ; therefore we must 
admit that out of the Catholic Church there is no 
salvation. 



140 



The True Religion. 



What, then, is to be said of the members of the 
various denominations? of children that die with- 
out being incorporated with Christ by baptism? 
of infidels properly so called? Let us examine 
these points in order. 

Our divine Lord constituted His Church in 
such a manner as to adapt it to man's wants. 
As man is composed of two distinct elements, 
body and soul, so the Church consists of two 
distinct corresponding elements, the external and 
the internal, intimately united and harmonizing 
with each other. The external is the outward 
mechanism, the exterior organization, the visible 
hierarchy ; it includes whatever belongs to the 
outward action of the Church, as the administra- 
tion of the sacraments, the preaching of the word 
of God, the exercise of ecclesiastical authority, and 
the external profession of faith. The spiritual 
element comprises all the graces and virtues that 
are the foundation of the spiritual life ; it includes 
the gifts of the Holy Ghost ; in other words, it is 
what theologians call the soul of the Church. 
This mysterious soul is not limited by the bounds 
of the exterior organization; it can go far beyond; 
exist even in the midst of schism and heresy 
unconsciously professed, and bind to Our Lord 
hearts that are connected by no exterior ties with 



Salvation out of the Church. 



141 



the visible body of the Church. This union with 
the soul of the Church is essential to salvation ; 
so essential that without it none can be saved. 
But the necessity of belonging likewise to the 
body of the Church, though a real one, may, in 
certain cases, offer no obstacle to salvation. This 
happens whenever invincible ignorance so shrouds 
a man's intellectual vision that he ceases to be 
responsible before God for the light which he does 
not see. Let us pass to the practical application 
of this principle. 

We shall first take the case of a child who has 
received the sacred rite of baptism, according to 
Our Lord's institution. The purifying water has 
cleansed his soul from the stain of original sin. 
Should the child die before attaining the age of 
reason, he is saved and shall forever bless God's 
mercy in the kingdom of glory. But if death 
should not transplant this flower from earth to 
heaven ; if the young Christian, to whatever de- 
nomination he belongs, is destined to fight the 
battle of life ; if he must win or lose the crown of 
immortality by his own free actions, then we may 
look at his subsequent religious life under two 
possible aspects. 

Doubt may never come to overshadow the con- 
viction of his childhood. He may feel sure that 



142 



The True Religion. 



the Church in which he was born and to which 
he belongs was truly established by Our Lord; that 
the authority of his spiritual superiors is the lawful 
authority which he should obey; that the worship 
he renders to God is such as God requires for his 
eternal salvation. We do not examine to what 
extent these conditions can be verified in the 
present state of the world. Such a question 
would admit of no positive answer. God alone 
knows how many souls are endowed with such 
good faith. But this good faith being supposed, 
we say that such a Christian as we have described 
is in a way a member of the Catholic Church. 
Ignorance alone is the cause of his not acknowl- 
edging the authority of his true mother. The 
Catholic Church does not look upon him as wholly 
a stranger ; she calls him her child ; she presses 
him to her maternal heart ; through other hands 
she prepares him to shine in the kingdom of God. 
Yes, the profession of a creed different from the 
true one will not, of itself, bar the gates of heaven 
before this Christian ; invincible ignorance will, 
before the tribunal of the just God, ensure the 
pardon of his errors against faith ; and, if nothing 
else be wanting, heaven will be his home for eter- 
nity. We give this, not as our opinion solely; it 
is the doctrine held by almost all theologians, and 



Salvation out of the Church. 



143 



has received the sanction of our late Pope Pius 
IX. In his allocution of December 9, 1854, we 
read the following words : " It is indeed of faith 
that no one can be saved outside the Apostolic 
Roman Church ; that this Church is the one ark 
of salvation ; that he who has not entered it will 
perish in the deluge. But, on the other hand, it 
is equally certain that, were a man to be invin- 
cibly ignorant of the true religion, he w^ould not 
be held guilty in the sight of God for not profess- 
ing it." Tenendum quippe ex fide est, extra Apos- 
tolicam Romanam Ecclesiam salvum fieri neminem 
posse; hanc esse unicam salutis arcam ; hanc qui 
non fuerit ingressus diluvio periturum ; sed tamen 
pro certo pariter habendum est, qui verce religionis 
ignorantia laborent, si ea sit invincibilis, nulla 
ipsos obstringi hujus rei culpa ante oculos Domini. 

If invincible ignorance may thus shield the un- 
Catholic Christian, why, it is asked, should Catho- 
lics do so much to induce him to change his 
religious convictions ? Why are they so desirous 
that he should become a member of the Roman 
Church ? It is, first, because truth is a better 
possession than error, however honestly it may be 
held ; second, because the good faith which may 
exist in the sectarian cannot be supposed to be 
present in every case, nor demonstrated in any ; 



144 



The True Religion. 



third, because, even when good faith does exist, 
the soul may be stained with mortal sin. And 
how many have such perfect contrition for their 
sins as to obtain forgiveness without the sacra- 
ment of penance? Nay, how many do really 
know that true contrition is their only means of 
reconciliation, with God ? Fourth, because we 
desire that our separated brethren should realize 
to the full extent the benefits our divine Saviour 
has bestowed upon the Church for the salvation 
of man ; that they should share in these benefits, 
and receive their powerful help for the avoidance 
of sin ; and that, in the knowledge of the true 
Faith, they may render glory to God. 

We call our readers' attention more especially 
to the third reason mentioned above. When we 
consider man's proclivity to evil ; the allurements 
of this wicked world; the bad example which 
continually comes before us, and the hatred of 
Satan bent upon our ruin, is it at all unlikely that 
many lose the baptismal grace? Should we not 
rather say that few, indeed, bring with them 
before God's tribunal the unstained robe of inno- 
cence? And mortal sin once committed, all rights 
to heaven are forfeited. True, we are not left 
without some means of reconciliation w r ith God. 
For this purpose the sacrament of penance was 



Salvation out of the Church. 145 



instituted ; but to this instrument of forgiveness 
the sectarian of good faith can have no recourse. 
The only way open to him is that of perfect con- 
trition ; a sorrow for one's offences, arising from 
the perfect love of God, inducing man to detest 
sin more than all other evils, for the reason that it 
offends God, the supreme good. Is this contri- 
tion obtained so easily? Is its necessity even 
dreamed of by those outside the Church, no mat- 
ter what good faith we suppose in them? 

Let us now turn to the second possible aspect of 
this young Christian's life. He may be assailed 
by doubt; he may question the authority of his 
sectarian teachers; he may waver in his convic- 
tion. In the presence of his conscience, of the 
Gospel, of history, he may ask himself : " Is my 
religion the one which Christ established on earth? 
The Son of God came into this world nineteen 
centuries ago ; his religion must count nineteen 
centuries of existence ; for nineteen centuries it 
has brought souls to God, sanctified them, saved 
them. And my denomination, when did it arise? 
I can easily reckon the comparatively few years it 
has existed. How is such a discrepancy to be 
explained ? " 

He consults the authorities of his own denomi- 
nation, and the theory of an invisible church is 



146 



The True Religion. 



offered to him. Though, as we have seen, this 
theory is false, it may, perhaps, satisfy him ; but 
what if it does not? What if he continue to in- 
quire " how that church from being invisible 
became visible ; how an invisible church can be 
recognized by men, when they only judge by what 
they see ; how an invisible church can preach the 
Gospel to all nations, be a bond of union for man- 
kind, and gather them into one society?" Upon 
these grounds he dismisses the answer. 

His researches persevered in, he discovers some 
who maintain that the primitive church estab- 
lished by Christ underwent a grievous transforma- 
tion ; that the denomination to which he belongs 
is that primitive church restored to its first purity. 
But here again, what if he be not satisfied with 
this solution of his difficulty? What if sound 
reason tells him that, if a change of this nature 
took place, there should be at hand sufficient his- 
torical proofs of so important a fact, and none 
such are given ? He may ask, " When, where, 
through whom, under what circumstances, did that 
change occur ? " No satisfactory answer is put 
forward to his questioning. Some assert that the 
Church fell from its primitive state of purity in 
the fourth century ; others that it did so in the 
fifth ; a third party ascribe it to the sixth ; while 



Salvation out of the Church. 147 



others set it clown to the seventh, the eighth, or the 
ninth. But he insists : " Where are the documents 
certifying to this fact?" And, again, "How 
could this fatal corruption have taken place, when 
Christ promised to be always with His Church ; 
when He said that the gates of hell should never 
prevail against it; when in all times and in all 
places, even to the consummation of the world, 
the voice of the Church, according to Christ's 
injunctions, should be no less sacred to man than 
the voice of God Himself? Would Christ have 
given Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII., and the rest, 
the mission of purifying His Church, without in 
some way authenticating that mission? Must I, 
in the absence of proof, take for granted the mere 
assertions of men fallible like myself? Men, too, 
whose life was far from being immaculate?" 
More than ever doubtful, he asks, " Is my religion 
Christ's religion ? " 

Consulting his own reason, he perceives that 
God's works are perfect, full of wisdom, always 
consistent with themselves ; and he cannot help 
perceiving also that the faith he follows stands on 
no solid ground. It teaches to-day what it denied 
yesterday ; it has all the appearance of a weak 
philosophical system. The Gospel, moreover, 
teaches him that Christ built His Church upon 



148 



The True Religion, 



Peter ; that from Peter all power, all authority, 
all right to teach, should be derived : yet he can- 
not avoid seeing that no link connects his church 
with that of Peter. He sees that the ministers of 
his denomination do not trace their succession to 
Peter, and are supported by no authority but their 
own. 

When these or similar difficulties have assailed 
the mind, when former convictions are shaken, 
when previous good faith can no longer exist in 
the soul, then is a man bound to pursue his inqui- 
ries after truth, and this fearlessly and thoroughly. 
But if, through indifference, or pride, or human 
respect, or the fear of losing caste, or for any 
worldly reason whatever, he clings to his sect, 
employs no means to ascertain the truth, and, 
against the protest of conscience, repeats to him- 
self that he can be saved in the religion in which 
he was born, then we say that such a man is with- 
out the pale of salvation. Is this intolerance, or 
simple justice? Can you blame the Church for 
refusing this man the salvation he will make no 
sacrifice to win ? 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE SALVATION OF UNBAPTIZED CHILDREN. 

Baptism essentially necessary for salvation — Our Lord's words 
refer to children as well as adults — Necessity of baptism formally 
asserted in several Councils — The principles of the Christian 
faith lead to the same conclusion — Condition of children dying 
without baptism — Probable opinion stated and defended — Nature 
of the happiness befalling them. 

With regard to children who die in the state 
of original sin, we have to consider two things : 
the happiness they might have enjoyed, and the 
actual condition which falls to their lot. It is of 
faith that these children are excluded from eternal 
life ; they will never enjoy the supernatural happi- 
ness which the blood of Christ purchased for all; 
never contemplate face to face the infinite beauty 
of God; never become citizens of the kingdom 
their more fortunate brethren are called to pos- 
sess. This is our belief. Our Lord's words refer 
to children as well as adults: "No one can enter 
into the kingdom of God unless he be born again 
of water and the Holy Ghost." (John iii. 5.) The 
doctrine of the Church interprets His words in 
the most explicit manner. The necessity of bap- 

149 



150 



The True Religion. 



tism was formally asserted in two general coun- 
cils, those of Lyons and Florence ; and the Coun- 
cil of Trent pronounces anathema against any 
one who dares to maintain that baptism is not 
essentially necessary for salvation. 

A consideration of the principles of the Chris- 
tian faith would lead us to the same conclusion. 
We know that Our Lord's atoning death, taken as 
a historical fact, does not, by itself, bring man to 
salvation. Our Lord's merits must be applied to 
the individual soul ; His precious blood must flow 
upon us and wash away the stain of sin ; His 
divine image must be stamped upon our hearts 
and make us like unto Him. But for those un- 
fortunate children, the bond of connection is 
wanting. For them the channels of grace have 
never been opened. From this we see how the 
teaching of the Catholic Church is consistent 
throughout, and harmonizes with that of Our 
Blessed Lord. It cannot be otherwise, for she 
bases her teaching upon His ; and when Christ 
has spoken, no word of His can be called in ques- 
tion. Human reason must submit. We must 
needs bow down before God's decrees and adore 
His unfathomable judgment. This one point, 
therefore, does the Church propose to our faith. 
This much we are bound to believe, but no more. 



Salvation of Unbaptized Children. 



151 



As to the rest, the Church has defined nothing , 
and consequently no one can declare with perfect 
certainty what fate awaits the unbaptized child 
beyond the tomb. 

But, though we can assert nothing positively, 
are we altogether ignorant on the subject? Are 
we not enabled to lift up, at least in part, the veil 
which hides these secrets from our sight? Have 
we not sufficient ground for an opinion, which, 
without impugning any dogma of our faith, yields 
consolation to the heart ? We have ; and hence 
we affirm that these children do not endure the 
torment of fire ; they are not destitute of all love 
of God ; they are fixed in a condition equally dis- 
tant from perfect happiness and complete misery. 
Compared to the happiness of heaven, their condi- 
tion is such as to be called a state of death, for 
they are deprived of the true life of the soul, that 
of grace and glory. Theirs is really a state of 
reprobation, because they do not attain the super- 
natural end for which alone they were created by 
God. It is a state of perpetual banishment, be- 
cause heaven is the true home of every soul. 
Considered in itself, however, their condition is 
not devoid of good. They do not hate the 
Supreme Author of their existence; nor have they 
fallen into a state of complete misery ; but a 



152 



The True Religion. 



natural happiness is enjoyed by them in propor- 
tion to the capacity of their souls. 

And this opinion is not that of one doctor or 
one school or one century alone. It has been 
approved by many of the ancient Fathers and 
Doctors of the Church. It was upheld by that 
theologian whose very name is a power; who 
summed up in himself the learning of preceding 
generations, and whom the Church has surnamed 
the "Angel of the School," — St. Thomas Aqui- 
nas. It has been defended with the most cogent 
reasoning by the ablest Catholic writers, and 
taught in almost all Catholic universities from 
the eleventh to this nineteenth century. 

We may say, indeed, that such a belief seems 
to spring from the natural sense of justice which 
God Himself has implanted in the heart. Origi- 
nal sin is not contracted by any positive personal 
act ; why, then, should it deserve positive personal 
punishment? How could the infinite God — so 
merciful even when displaying the terrors of His 
justice — condemn to the fire of hell creatures 
whose only fault is that they have been created? 
How could life be esteemed a benefit, a gift worthy 
of God, if its brief enjoyment should thus entail 
endless misery upon the helpless recipient? No; 
when faith teaches us that original sin deprives 



Salvation of Unbaptized Children. 153 



man of all the gifts of grace and glo^, we must 
acknowledge that such a sentence is just. The 
happiness of heaven transcends the capacity of any 
created being. It is a free gift of God, to which 
the fact of our creation can afford no claim. God 
might justly have created man without calling 
him to such a lofty destiny. And if, in His un- 
bounded mercy and love, He deigns to raise man 
to a participation in His divine blessedness, He 
can impose such conditions as He may please, and 
when these are not complied with, He may justly 
refuse superhuman beatitude. But that souls 
should endure the everlasting fire of hell for a 
fault not personal to them ; that the punishment 
of original sin should pass beyond the limits of its 
effects, and strike those whom it had never led 
into actual guilt ; that it should break every tie of 
love between the Creator and His creature, and 
turn the soul away from God with the hostility of 
the reprobate, this is what the great Doctors have 
denied ; and, as their opinion is far from the 
Church's condemnation, we too can deny it after 
and with them. 

This doctrine, consoling to all, must be doubly 
so to Christian mothers. Their grief ought to 
have no limit when they have criminally choked 
the spring both of the material and spiritual life 



154 



The True Religion. 



of their children, — -mothers most cruel, unworthy 
of that sacred name, charged with a double mur- 
der before God ! Yes, their remorse may well be 
great, when they have been the cause of their 
child's eternal exclusion from heaven, of its being 
forever withheld from the embraces of its Heav- 
enly Father, of its lasting deprivation of that 
glory which to procure for it Jesus died upon the 
cross. But if through no fault of theirs their 
child has died unregenerated, they are not left 
wholly without comfort. It is no little consola- 
tion for them to know that, although deprived of 
eternal life, the child is not doomed to the fire of 
hell ; debarred from supernatural bliss, he does not 
curse the authors of his existence ; excluded from 
heaven, he can still know and love God as the 
author of nature, and in that natural knowledge 
and love of God find a happiness proportioned to 
the natural capacity of his soul. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT INFIDELS. 

Question restricted to liim who is ignorant of the claims of 
Christianity — Observers of the natural law shall not be left in 
their infidelity — God's will as to the salvation of all men — - 
Means of salvation intended for all — The actual bestowal of 
these means depending upon a condition to be complied with by 
man — Gratuitousness of the gift of faith — Man may do enough 
to prevent it. 

To complete our treatment of the question in 
hand, we must here add a few words concerning 
infidels. And, first, we do not include him whose 
mind was once enlightened by faith, and whose 
heart was once warmed by the supernatural love 
of God; who in life, as well as in name, was once 
a Christian, but afterwards cast away his birth- 
right. Neither are we considering the man whom 
divine grace has vainly impelled to search for the 
true way of salvation, and who feels in his heart 
that more is required of him than he has ever yet 
rendered to God, — the man, in a word, who, 
though he has never embraced Christianity, is 
aware of the obligation of becoming a Christian, 
or of making serious researches about religion. 

155 



156 



The Trite Religion. 



We speak only of those who are ignorant of the 
claims of Christianity, and have had, at the best, 
but obscure glimpses of the supernatural relations 
which God has established with His rational creat- 
ures. To men of this description we at present 
direct our attention. 

For such, we may safely entertain hope in this 
life, while we are certain that justice will be ren- 
dered them in the next. If one of this class be 
right-minded ; if, either by his own power or with 
the help of grace, he fulfils those duties which the 
natural law, stamped upon his heart, prescribes, 
and shuns what it forbids, God will not abandon 
him in his infidelity. Should a miracle be needed 
to bring him to the true faith, a miracle, says St. 
Thomas Aquinas, will be performed by God. An 
example of the kind, occurring in the earliest 
days of the Church, is recorded in the Acts of 
the Apostles. (Ch. x.) There was a centurion, 
Cornelius by name, who served and feared God, 
and occupied himself in the good works which he 
believed pleasing in His sight. In a vision, an 
angel of God came to him and said : " Cornelius, 
thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memo- 
rial before God. Send a man to Joppa, and call 
hither one Simon, whose surname is Peter ; he will 
tell thee what thou must do." Simon came, and 



A Feiv Words about Infidels. 157 



made known to him the faith of Jesus, and there- 
upon Cornelius became a Christian. Do Ave im- 
agine that God's arm is shortened; that He cannot 
in these times unfold the same treasures of grace 
before the same good will ? Can we admit that 
the Heavenly Father, desirous of the salvation of 
all, will have those perish who obey the dictates 
of reason, and are docile to the faintest whisper of 
grace? No; heaven and earth shall be moved to 
bring them close to God. Neither distance nor 
other obstacles shall impede His mercy. Other 
Peters, if needed, shall be brought on angels' 
wings to teach him the true way of salvation. 

We remarked that God wishes the salvation of 
all men. As this point contains the theological 
ground of our solution of the present difficulty, 
let us dwell upon it at somewhat greater length. 

What idea do we form of God ? Is He not the 
creator of all men? the Being upon whom our 
welfare depends? and, consequently, our Helper 
in trials and misfortunes ? Reason itself teaches 
us this much concerning God ; but, even before 
we listen to its voice, does not our heart prompt 
us to look upon Him as our most tender, most 
compassionate, most loving Father ? Can this be 
consistent with the idea that some are to be 
excluded, even one, from His love, and destined 



158 



The True Religion. 



to ha,ve no share in His best gifts? That the 
grace of faith is not intended for him who re- 
moves the obstacles which may prevent God's 
mercy from flowing in upon His soul? 

What especially shall we conclude if we consult 
God's own word? Do we not read therein that 
Our Lord is the light which enlightens every man 
that cometh into this world (John i. 9) ? that He 
came to save all that which had perished (Matt, 
xviii. 11) ? that His mission was to reconcile earth 
with heaven (Rom. v. 10) ? that He gave Himself 
a ransom for all (1 Tim. ii. 6)? that His blood was 
shed for every man (Rom. viii. 32) ? Nay, more ; 
does not God's word positively affirm that, not- 
withstanding the fall of Adam, He wills the salva- 
tion of all men ? 

Out of the many passages of Scripture which 
might be brought forward in support of this 
doctrine, we quote but one; it is from the letter 
of St. Paul to his disciple Timothy : " I desire, 
therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, 
intercessions, be made for all men : for kings, and 
for all who are in high station, that we may lead 
a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and chastity. 
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
God our Saviour, who will have all men to be 
saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 



A Few Words about Infidels. 159 



For there is one God, and one Mediator of God 
and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself 
in redemption for all." (1 Tim. ii. 1-6.) This 
passage shows forth in the light of the clearest 
evidence the point we have taken into considera- 
tion ; for, not only is it explicitly affirmed that 
God wills the salvation of all men, but also, as 
Cardinal Franzelin remarks (I)e Deo Uno}, this 
same statement is proved by three distinct argu- 
ments. We shall be satisfied with the mere indi- 
cation of them. God wills those to be saved in 
whose behalf prayers are to be offered ; but no 
man is to be excluded from our prayers, because, 
in the words of the Apostle, these are to be offered 
for all. No one, therefore, is excepted from the 
universality of God's will with regard to salva- 
tion. Again, those are the object of God's will 
with regard to salvation, of whom God is the 
creator. But there is no man of whom God is 
not the creator ; hence, there is no man whom 
God's will excludes from salvation. Furthermore, 
they are comprehended in the universality of God's 
will, who have the human nature in common with 
Christ, the sole mediator between God and man, 
and for whom Christ gave Himself in redemption. 
But there is no man who has not the human 
nature in common with Christ ; and there is 



160 



The True Religion. 



none for whom He did not give Himself in re- 
demption. Therefore, every man is the object of 
God's will with regard to salvation. 

If this cannot be questioned, our previous 
statement is undeniable ; for God cannot be said 
to will the salvation of all men, and refuse some 
of them the necessary means for its attainment. 
But there can be no salvation without truly su- 
pernatural faith ; for we read (Heb. xi. 6) that 
''without faith it is impossible to please God." 
Therefore, faith has to be placed within the reach 
of all. But true faith supposes the knowledge of 
God's own word; therefore, this knowledge must, 
in some way or other, be supplied to all. But 
there are men who have never heard of God's 
word, by whom God's word has never been 
known as such ; and these are infidels, properly 
so called. Therefore, while we admit that there 
is a divine law decreeing to all men the means of 
salvation, we must likewise admit that the actual 
bestowal of these means depends upon a condition 
of some kind or other. By whom should this 
condition be complied with? Not, certainly, by 
God Himself ; for, in such case, God would will 
and not will man's salvation. This condition, 
therefore, depends upon man ; and it can be no 
other than that man is to put no obstacle to God's 



A Few Words about Infidels. 



161 



mercy. Though man, therefore, can do nothing 
to obtain vocation to the true faith, which is a 
gift altogether gratuitous, yet he may do enough 
to prevent it. Notwithstanding this, however, 
God may, and often does, exercise His mercy, even 
with regard to infidels steeped in sin. But this 
mercy will certainly be shown when man puts no 
obstacle to it ; in other words, whenever, by his 
native power and with the help of that grace 
which is called medicinal, he observes the pre- 
cepts of the natural law. With regard to men of 
this description, we positively assert that God will 
use even extraordinary means to enlighten their 
minds and warm their hearts. At what time, in 
what manner, and how often, the soul may experi- 
ence the touch of this divine grace, we cannot 
determine ; no general rule can be established. 
All that we may safely assert is that God, in His 
mercy, will choose the moment most favorable for 
the soul. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



RECAPITULATION. 

When the Vatican Council was convoked, in 
the year 1868, Pope Pius IX., the then reigning 
Pontiff of Catholic Christendom, addressed a 
letter of invitation to all non-Catholic Christians, 
mainly to those of Protestant denominations. As 
many of the points we have so far dwelt upon are 
contained in this letter, we give here the main 
part of it by way of recapitulation of the first part 
of our work. 

After having given the reasons for summoning 
the General Council, the Holy Father speaks 
thus : — 

"Roused and urged by the love of Our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who gave His life for the whole 
human race, we cannot restrain ourselves on the 
occasion of the future council from addressing our 
apostolic and paternal words to all those who, 
whilst they acknowledge the same Jesus Christ as 
the Redeemer, and glory in the name of Christian, 

162 



Recapitulation. 



163 



yet do not profess the true faith of Christ, nor 
hold to and follow the communion of the Catholic 
Church. And we do this to warn and conjure 
and beseech them with all the warmth of our zeal, 
and in all charity, that they may consider and 
seriously examine whether they follow the path 
marked out for them by Jesus Christ Our Lord, 
and which leads to eternal salvation. No one can 
deny or doubt that Jesus Christ Himself, in order 
to apply the fruits of His redemption to all gen- 
erations of men, built His only Church in the 
world on Peter; that is to say, the Church One, 
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, and that He gave 
him all the power necessary to preserve the 
deposit of faith whole and inviolable, and to teach 
the same faith to all kindreds and peoples and 
nations ; so that all men who through baptism 
become members of His mystical body, and of 
that new life of grace without which no one can 
ever attain life eternal, may always be preserved 
and perfected in them ; and this Church, which is 
His mystical body, may always, in its own nature, 
remain firm and immovable to the consummation 
of ages, that it may flourish, and supply to all its 
children all the means of salvation. 

"Now, whoever will carefully examine and 
reflect upon the condition of the various religious 



164 



The True Religion. 



societies, divided among themselves, and separated 
from the Catholic Church — which, from the days 
of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles, has 
ever exercised, by its lawful pastors, and still 
does exercise, the divine power committed to it by 
this same Lord — will easily satisfy himself that 
none of these societies, singly nor all together, 
are in any way or form that one Catholic Church, 
winch Our Lord founded and built, and which 
He chose should be ; and that he cannot by any 
means say that these societies are members or 
parts of that Church, since they are visibly sepa- 
rated from Catholic unity. 

" For such like societies, being destitute of 
that living authority established by God, which 
especially teaches men what is of faith, what the 
rule of morals, and guides them in everything 
that relates to eternal life, are always varying in 
their doctrines ; and this changing and instability 
are increasing. Every one, therefore, must per- 
fectly understand, and clearly and evidently see, 
that such societies are distinctly opposite to the 
Church instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ; for 
in that Church truth must always continue firm 
and inaccessible to change, so as to preserve abso- 
lutely inviolable the deposit confided to her, for 
the guardianship of which the presence and aid of 



165 



the Holy Ghost have been promised to her for- 
ever. Every one also knows that from these 
divergent doctrines and opinions serious schisms 
have had their birth, which have generated within 
themselves sects and communions without num- 
ber, which spread themselves continually to the 
great injury of Christian and civil society. 

" Indeed, whoever observes that religion is the 
foundation of human society must perceive and 
confess the great influence which this division of 
principles, this opposition, this strife of religious 
societies among themselves, must have on civil 
society, and with what force this denial of the 
authority established by God to determine the 
belief of the human mind, and direct the actions 
of men as well in private as in social life, has 
fostered, spread, and supported those deplorable 
changes of times and circumstances, those troubles 
which at this day overwhelm and afflict almost all 
peoples. 

" Let all those, then, who do not profess the 
unity and truth of the Catholic Church, avail 
themselves of the opportunity of this council, in 
which the Catholic Church, to which their fore- 
fathers belonged, affords a new proof of her close 
unity and her invincible vitality, and let them 
satisfy the longings of their hearts, and liberate 



166 



The True Religion. 



themselves from that state in which they cannot 
be assured of their own salvation. Let them 
unceasingly offer fervent prayers to the God of 
Mercy that He will throw down the wall of sepa- 
ration, that He will scatter the darkness of error, 
and that He will lead them back to the Holy 
Mother Church, in whose bosom their fathers 
found the salutary pastures of life, in whom alone 
the whole doctrine of Jesus Christ is preserved 
and handed down, and the mysteries of heavenly 
grace dispensed." 



THE TKUE RELIGION. 
paet il 



In proving the infallibility of the Church, we 
have done away with all controversy as regards 
our faith. What the Church teaches must needs 
be true ; and, as truth cannot run counter to 
truth, the contradiction which sometimes seems to 
exist between reason and revelation must either 
arise from a misconception of the Catholic dogma, 
or from the acceptance as true principles of sci- 
ence of those which are far from being scientific. 
This conclusion will stand out more clearly from 
what we have to say in this second part of our 
work. We shall limit ourselves to the main dog- 
mas of our religion. 

167 



THE DOGMAS 



OF 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DOGMA OF THE TRINITY. 

Teaching of revelation — Definitions of the Church — 
Athanasian creed — The mystery of the Trinity most sublime 
— It belongs to the inward life of God — Unaided reason can- 
not conjecture its existence; nor demonstrate its necessity, even 
after it has been revealed — It is not, however, repugnant to 
reason — Necessity of mysteries — Lirnitedness of the human 
mind — God's infinite perfection. 

The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is, without 
exception, the most profound and the most sub- 
lime of those proposed by the Christian religion 
to our faith. We believe that God is not a soli- 
tary Being; that from all eternity He begets a 
Son, the substantial expression of Himself; and 
that both from the Father and the Son a third 
person proceeds, whom we call the Holy Ghost. 
This is our faith. It is set down clearly in the 

168 



The Dogma of the Trinity. 



169 



Gospel, " Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxv.) ; it is pro- 
claimed by the uninterrupted voice of nineteen 
centuries of believers; it is dogmatically defined 
by the Church. We refer to but one document, 
the Athanasian creed, and this in order to unfold 
the Catholic idea of the mystery. 

" This is the Catholic faith : that we worship 
one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither 
confounding the Persons nor dividing the Sub- 
stance. For there is one Person of the Father, 
another of the Son, and another of the Holy 
Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, 
the majesty co-eternal. . . . The Father is made 
of none, neither created nor begotten ; the Son is 
of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but be- 
gotten ; the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of 
the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, 
but proceeding. . . . He, therefore, that will be 
saved must think thus of the Trinity." 

Such, then, is this mystery, further beyond the 
reach of our reason than any other. Without 
divine revelation, it would have been impossible 
to conjecture its existence ; and even with the aid 
of revelation, it is impossible to comprehend it, 



170 



The True Religion. 



or prove by our syllogisms its necessity. But 
although above reason, it is not on that account 
against reason, and, therefore, reason cannot re- 
ject it because of its impossibility. These are 
the various points we purpose examining in this 
chapter. 

Reason, unaided by revelation, can acquire no 
idea of the Supreme Being otherwise than by the 
contemplation of creatures. We do not see God 
Himself. If we affirm His existence, it is because 
we behold His works. If we admire His perfec- 
tions, it is because reason compels us to exclaim 
with St. Aiigiistin, "If the work of my God is so 
full of glory, of wisdom, of beauty, . . . how 
much more beautiful, wise, and glorious must He 
be who called all these things into existence!" 
But what is the extent of this knowledge ? Does 
it lay open the very nature of God's existence, 
perfection, and life? We know from it what God 
is not, rather than what He is. We say that life, 
beauty, perfection, exist in creatures, and must, 
therefore, exist in God, their creator ; but, to keep 
to the truth, we must add that God's beauty is far 
different from that contemplated in creatures, His 
life far more perfect in its mode of existence than 
the most perfect we are able to imagine, His per- 
fections soar infinitely above any that the world 



The Dogma of the Trinity, 



171 



of matter and the world of spirits display before 
us. In a word, reason teaches that God is the 
possessor of all perfections in an infinite degree, 
but throws only a faint light upon the nature of 
those perfections. Now, the mystery of the Trin- 
ity belongs to the inward life of God. It mani- 
fests God's natural fecundity ; it reveals the 
sublimity of the eternal operations of God, — the 
operation of the divine mind, by which God ex- 
presses Himself to Himself, and that of the divine 
will, which expresses the substantial love that the 
Father has for the Son, and the Son for the Father. 
Of the wonders of these inward operations there 
is no clear representation in creation, for no exter- 
nal work is so produced by one person es not to 
be produced by the others. As there is no divis- 
ion in the divine nature, and the nature of a being 
is the active principle of all outward productions, 
no division can exist in the operation itself. The 
holy Fathers, it is true, and the holy Scrij)ture 
itself, attribute some works to one divine person 
in preference to the others : thus, that which 
manifests God's omnipotence is attributed to the 
Father, that which exemplifies God's wisdom to 
the Son, to the Holy Ghost that which points out 
God's sanctity. But this is only because the 
work under consideration corresponds in a special 



172 



The True Religion. 



manner to the character of each divine person, not 
because it is produced by either God the Father 
alone, or God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost. 
Hence it follows that the works of creation cannot 
impart the knowledge of the Most Holy Trinity. 
And as all our natural knowledge of God is de- 
rived from the contemplation of creatures, it is 
evident that without revelation our minds would 
remain forever ignorant of this sublime mystery. 

Nay, more. This mystery is so elevated that 
even after it has been revealed it is above the 
demonstrative power of our reason. Even with 
our knowledge of its existence, we can give no 
rational proof of its necessity. Without doubt, if 
there are three Persons in God, it is because 
there must be three. It is thus because it can- 
not be otherwise. But why? The reason escapes 
us. We have no natural principle from which to 
argue. No matter how intense our desire to ex- 
plain mysteries, we must here bow down with all 
the pride of our reason. Aided by revelation, 
we may discover probabilities which will assist 
our faith, and counterbalance the improbabilities 
which error opposes to it. This has been the 
work of Catholic science, enabling it, as we shall 
see in the following chapter, to trace, with more 
or less distinctness vestiges of this mystery in the 



The Dogma of the Trinity. 



173 



entire creation, and especially in the human soul. 
But these are only vestiges, useful as illustrations 
of the dogma, but of no value as proofs. More 
than any other, this mystery requires for its sup- 
port the authority of God's own word, and of the 
Church, commissioned by God Himself to guard 
and explain His word. If we attempt to demon- 
strate it upon other grounds, we but expose its 
sacredness to the derision of scepticism and heresy. 

But because reason, left to its own resources, 
cannot conjecture the existence of this, or demon- 
strate it after its existence has become known, 
must it necessarily be .repugnant to its laws? 
Can reason show that it is inadmissible? This is 
what the rationalists assert. They maintain that 
the mystery of the Trinity involves a contradic- 
tion. An infidel of the last century was wont to 
saj^, 64 Believe that one is three, and three are one, 
and you are a Catholic, because you admit that 
dogma which is the foundation of all others." 
We grant that the mystery of the Blessed Trinity 
is the pillar which sustains all the other dogmas ; 
but we deny that the Catholic religion ever pro- 
posed as an object of our faith such an absurd 
statement in regard to it. 

The Catholic teaching is simply this : There is 
one divine nature, and in that divine nature there 



174 



The True Religion. 



are three persons — Unity of Nature, Trinity of 
Persons. We employ the terms one and three; 
but neither does the three contain the negation of 
the one, nor the one the negation of the three, 
because the one refers to the nature of God, the 
three to the persons in that nature. As the asser- 
tions, then, relate not to the same thing consid- 
ered from the same point of view, they are not 
contradictory, as would be the case should we say 
that there was but one divine nature, and yet 
three divine natures ; or three divine persons, yet 
only one divine person. The whole argument of 
rationalism rests, therefore, upon a misconception 
of our doctrine. 

We confess that this mystery is difficult, nay, 
impossible, to understand. Bat we are sure, at the 
same time, that its impossibility cannot be demon- 
strated, for the simple reason that there is no solid 
basis on which to rest the argument. We can- 
not prove a contradiction to exist in any case 
without a thorough knowledge of the terms which 
we declare contradictory. Now, where is the 
philosopher who can flatter himself that he has a 
perfect conception of essence, person, nature, sub- 
stance? Among all the mysterious and obscure 
words which human language includes, says 
Fr. Felix, are there any more obscure and 



The Dogma of the Trinity. 



175 



more mysterious ? What is person ? what sub- 
stance? what essence? what unites them? what 
separates them ? Our intellect is foiled by these 
questions. We may stammer some vague words 
in answer, but that is all. In their true nature, 
even as they exist in created beings, there are 
depths which we cannot fathom. And did we 
succeed in comprehending the full significance of 
these terms as applied to man, what could we 
assert in regard to the Divine Being? that Being 
which is higher above every creature than heaven 
above the earth. 

St. Augustin, once walking along the seashore, 
was contemplating the wonders of creation. The 
majesty of the sea, the immensity of the sky, the 
sublimity of all nature, ravished his soul ; and at 
length, his thoughts borne onward and above by 
the glory of the scene, he burst forth into the 
exclamation : " O God of nature, O Father of 
my soul, O Light of the world, why am I unable 
to understand Thee ? Why can I not penetrate 
the mysteries of Thy life?" Scarcely had he fin- 
ished speaking when his eyes fell upon a little 
boy playing a short distance off, on the beach. 
He had dug a small hole in the sand, and was fill- 
ing it with the salt water. Augustin watched 
him for a few moments, and then, questioning him 



176 



The True Religion. 



as to his purpose, received for answer, " I want to 
pour all the water of the sea into this little hole." 
The saint smiled at his simplicity ; but the child, 
who, in reality, was an angel in human form, went 
on : " My task, Augustin, is easier than yours. 
Sooner shall this small hollow that I have made 
contain the vast ocean, than your finite mind com- 
prehend the infinite perfection of God." This 
truth, thus received by Augustin from a heav- 
enly teacher, is likewise offered by reason to 
every man. How can a limited being compre- 
hend unlimited perfection, or a creature so fathom 
its Creator's life as to reach all its secrets ? And 
this creature is man ! Man, who is compelled at 
every turn to leave mysteries unsolved ! Man, 
who must confess his ignorance of the essential 
nature even of a drop of water, of a grain of sand, 
of a blade of grass! Man, who, notwithstanding 
the boasted progress of physical science, is help- 
less before the mysterious principle of even cre- 
ated life ! We do not refer to the life of our 
minds alone, nor even to that of our bodies. 
Human science has failed in the attempts to dis- 
cover its secrets. We speak of the life of the 
most insignificant animal, nay, even of that of a 
plant. Is the scientist able to inform us how 
from the germ latent in the seed there springs up 



The Dogma of the Trinity. 



177 



the stem, from the stem the flower, from the 
flower the fruit ; and how the fruit, in its decay, 
ripens a new seed capable of transmitting this 
wonderful process to future generations ? " It is 
the miracle of vegetation ! " they exclaim. But 
do they understand that miracle ? Assuredly not. 
If, then, our mental life . has its mysteries ; the 
life of an animal its mysteries; the life of a plant 
its mysteries ; should there be no mysteries in the 
life of Him whom the heavens cannot contain, and 
in whose presence the whole universe is but a 
perishable atom ? Let us humble our reason, con- 
fess our ignorance, and acknowledge, with the 
Catholic Church, the Unity of the Divine Nature 
and the Trinity of the Divine Persons. 



CHAPTER IL 



CREATED AND UNCREATED LIFE. 

Probabilities which reason, enlightened from above, is able 
to discover as to the mystery of the Trinity — Life the great- 
est perfection of created beings — Glory of paternity, man's 
noblest prerogative — It must exist in the Supreme Cause — 
Fecundity existing in God in accordance with His nature — 
Illustrations from the working of man's soul — Man's interior 
word limited as to perfection, duration, and capacity of repre- 
sentation — God's word infinitely perfect — Personality one of 
the highest perfections — Similar analogies as to the Holy Ghost 
— Man's love contingent and accidental, God's necessary and 
substantial — Name of the Third Person. 

True as it is that the whole of creation offers 
nothing but indications of God's essence, yet if, 
with the help of divine revelation, we carefully 
study the perfections that shine forth, more espec- 
ially in living beings; if we purify them from that 
admixture of imperfection which is essentially 
inherent in a created nature ; if we add to them 
what the nature of a divine being must possess; 
we shall perhaps succeed in drawing aside a fold 
of that curtain which veils from us the marvels of 
the divine Life. This, as we have remarked, has 
been the work of Catholic divines, and in this 

178 



Created and Uncreated Life. 179 



chapter we but avail ourselves of their labors. 
We shall make use more particularly of the works 
of two eminent theologians and orators, Felix and 
Monsabre, who bring before our mind in a more 
popular way the profound considerations of the 
Fathers and Doctors of the Church. We repeat 
that we do not take these conjectures for 
proofs. Our only purpose is to oppose to the 
improbabilities, which error adduces against our 
faith, the probabilities which reason, enlightened 
from above, is able to discover even in the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, unquestionably the most diffi- 
cult of our religion. 

Unable though we be to fully understand the 
wonderful process by which life is perpetuated in 
the world, yet we cannot doubt that the power of 
bringing into existence beings of a similar nature 
is one of the noblest prerogatives God has be- 
stowed upon living beings. Marvellous in plants, 
more so in animals, this power seems to be su- 
preme in man, and crowns him with unparalleled 
dignity ; for, in the natural order, nothing can 
equal the legitimate pride of a father and mother, 
who see themselves living again in their child. 

Are- we to believe that God Himself is without 
this perfection? Shall He who bestows upon 
others the power of reproduction, alone remain 



180 



The True Religion. 



destitute of it? Shall not the source of all 
paternity be Himself a father? Assuredly we 
may address this endearing name to God ; it is 
the need of our hearts, the expression of our love, 
the cry of our weakness. God is pleased when it 
rises from our lips. He even invites us to use it, 
and bids us say " Our Father, who art in heaven." 
Yet we know that we cannot call God our Father 
in the sense in which we apply this name to our 
earthly fathers. We are created, but not begot- 
ten ; and because we are not God's begotten chil- 
dren, we have not a complete similarity of nature 
with Him, which is essentially required for a true 
generation. The same holds true even in the 
supernatural order. Undoubtedly the gifts, of 
grace make us resemble God more than those of 
nature. They imprint a divine mark upon our 
souls; but even so, there is nothing really common 
to God and us; it is but the shadow of God rest- 
ing upon us ; our nature, though elevated to a 
supernatural state, remains essentially the same, 
ever infinitely beneath that of God. As, then, 
neither the natural nor the supernatural order 
makes us physically partakers of the divine essence, 
neither the fact of our creation nor that of our 
regeneration makes God really our Father. We 
must, then, deny that a perfection which God has 



Created and Uncreated Life. 



181 



bestowed on every living being exists in Himself, 
or we must admit that there is a fecundity pecul- 
iar to God. But reason tells us that every cause, 
— and, above all, the Infinite Cause, — possesses, 
in some way or other, the perfections it communi- 
cates to its effects; therefore reason, far from 
rejecting, rather indicates the fecundity of God, 
and warns' us at the same time that this fecundity 
is truly unique, truly ineffable, truly divine. 

For, if fecundity exists in God, it must be of a 
kind in accordance with His nature. This is 
evident. Now, God is a pure spirit ; therefore, to 
gain some idea of His paternity, w^e must rise 
above flesh and blood. It is by His intelligence 
that God can be a father. Let us enter within the 
sanctuary of our soul; for God has there placed a 
faint reflection of the truth we are endeavoring to 
illustrate. 

The spiritual substance which is so closely 
united to our body is something more than the 
animating principle of a physical organism. Any 
other belief is an erroneous one, which would 
lower man to the level of the brutes. The true 
philosopher, who weighs the interior working of 
our nature, and recognizes its greatness, recog- 
nizes also the fact that in this hidden life our soul 
is fruitful" — productive; that it begets its thought, 



182 



The True Religion. 



and in this thought gives itself expression. Here, 
then, is an image of the divine paternity; an 
image faint, indeed, incomplete, infinitely inferior 
to its divine original; for the thought in which 
God expresses Himself is a Person as perfect as 
the principle expressed, while ours is but the 
contingent act of our soul; yet the little imper- 
fect copy may help us to form some com ep .ion of 
the grandeur of its divine model. Let us dwell 
longer on this subject. 

The soul thinks and expresses its thought by 
an interior utterance, which we call its word, 
verbum. Where is this word ? In the soul itself. 
Nothing separates or can separate the one from 
the other. But our soul is limited; its word, 
then, must also be limited. It is limited in its 
perfection, since it is produced by a pow r er which 
stands lowest in the scale of intelligences. It is 
limited in duration, for it does not survive those 
operations of the mind with which it originates, 
lives, and passes away. It is limited in its 
capacity of representation, and for this reason it is 
multiplied — one thought completes another, and 
is made more luminous by the light shed by the 
other. 

Not so with the word of God. Like ours, it is 
indissolubly united to God's nature, but it cannot 



Created- and Uncreated Life. 



183 



be subject to the limitations by which ours is neces- 
sarily restricted. God is a necessary being ; His 
word, then, must likewise be necessary, and there- 
fore unchanging. — God is infinite; His word, then, 
must be infinite, and, exhausting the whole fecun- 
dity of intelligence, must be single and unique. — 
God is eternal; His word, then, must be eternal; 
and when God exclaims, This day I have begot- 
ten thee, that day is the daj r of eternity, ever the 
same, ever present, ever existent. — Our reason 
cannot conceive of the divine nature as dual or 
plural; then the same nature which is in the 
Father must be in the Son. And if the infinitude 
of the divine act requires that its term should be 
perfect, and should be a Person, and a divine 
Person as perfect as the Father, this Person must 
possess the divine nature in common with the 
Person of the Father. Therefore, the Father and 
the Son, though distinct as Persons, are one in 
nature. 

Oh! to what heights philosophy rises when she 
yields to the divine afflatus. She is made to 
appear an accomplice in the greatest blasphemies 
against God, when in truth she invites man to the 
profounclest* adoration. She is supposed to see 
only contradictions in our mysteries, while she 
really catches a glimpse of their harmony. She is 



184 



The True Religion. 



said to protest against the fecundity of God, 
while she seems almost to point out that Son 
whom God begets in the splendors of eternity. 
No — it is not reason, but the abuse of it, which 
makes men blasphemers. Reason, which produces 
true philosophy, produces also reverence for God 
and His word. 

But let us go on. The Holy Ghost — God, like 
the Father and the Son, distinct from the Father 
and the Son, and proceeding from them both — is 
the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Even 
with regard to this part of the dogma, we find in 
our spiritual nature analogies which may serve as 
illustrations. We shall be content with merely 
outlining the argument; for several of the reflec- 
tions already made apply equally well to this 
portion of our subject. 

Besides knowledge there is a second act in our 
soul, — no less essential than the former, — which we 
denominate "love." Our love, like our knowl- 
edge, is imperfect, being the transient modification 
of our will; but in the infinite being that God is, 
this act must needs be infinitely perfect, and com- 
municate to its term an infinite perfection. Now, 
personality is perfection, and one of the highest 
kind ; the term, therefore, of God's will, as well as 
that of God's intelligence, is of necessity a person; 



Created and Uncreated Life. # 185 



and a person possessing the same nature as the 
Father and the Son, the essential love of whom it 
expresses. 

By what name shall we indicate this divine 
Person? It is impossible to conceive of two sons 
in God. The Son of God must be infinite. He 
must, then, exhaust and express in Himself all the 
power of God as a Father; and so this third Per- 
son cannot bear the name of Son. In the lan- 
guage of faith we call Him the Holy Spirit, as He 
is the substantial expression of the love which 
necessarily exists between the Father and the Son. 
We symbolize love as a flame that consumes ; as a 
sigh that is breathed forth ; as a bond that unites ; 
and as here this symbolic bond, and flame, and 
sigh typify only what is pure, and chaste, and per- 
fect, w r e call this spirit of love the Holy Ghost. 

We w r ill go no further. Before leaving the 
subject, let us gather, as in one sheaf, the illustra- 
tions which reason has helped us to glean. We 
have said that fecundity is the grand prerogative 
of life ; then God, to whom all honor belongs, 
must possess it. In an immaterial being, fecundity 
is wholly spiritual ; then God, who is a pure spirit, 
can possess it as spirits do. An infinite spirit must 
communicate all its perfection to the fruits of its 
essential acts ; then, as personality is a perfection, 



186 



The True Religion. 



it must be found in God's essential acts of intelli- 
gence and will. But if the terms of these acts are 
persons, they must also be divine persons, which 
they can only be through participation in the na- 
ture of their principle ; and, accordingly, the same 
nature which is in the Father is in the Son and in 
the Holy Ghost. Therefore these three persons 
have but one numerical nature. And so, without 
asserting that reason can prove the truth of the 
mystery of the Trinity, we may conclude that it 
is not contrary to our reason, and that the intel- 
lect, enlightened by faith, may discover some illus- 
trations of what faith proposes to us. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE INCARNATION. 

Formula of the dogma — The mystery of the Incarnation the 
converse of the mystery of the Trinity — The Saviour both God 
and man — No finite being capable of satisfying God's justice to 
the full — Triumph of God's justice and mercy — The Incarnation 
Sketched out in the formation of man — Why the Second and not 
any other divine Person became man — Fitness of the time of the 
Incarnation — Manner of its accomplishment — The Incarnation 
the cause of all that is supernatural in the world. 

When the clouds that obscure the vision of 
faith shall have disappeared, and the light of 
heavenly glory dawned upon our soul, then alone 
shall we be able to comprehend fully this sublime 
work of God's wisdom and power, the Incarnation. 
Yet, if we must leave this mystery to the darkness 
of its inherent impenetrability, we can, at least, 
dispel the additional obscurity in which it is 
wrapped by human ignorance and prejudice. We 
shall, then, endeavor to set forth the truth as the 
Church holds it, convinced as we are that the 
simple exposition of the dogma is sufficient to clo 
away with many errors concerning it. 

187 



188 



The True Religion. 



Our belief with regard to the Incarnation is 
simply this: "That the second Person of the 
Blessed Trinity, God the Son, made the human 
nature His very own ; that He assumed or took up 
humanity into so close an embrace that the human 
nature became the nature of the Son of God." 
This mystery is, then, the converse of the adora- 
ble mystery of the Trinity. In both of them 
plurality and unity are wonderfully blended; the 
one does not conflict with the other ; each shines 
with the brightest supernatural splendor; but 
while in the mystery of the Trinity we admit one 
substance and three distinct persons, in the mys- 
tery of the Incarnation we acknowledge three 
distinct substances in one divine person. The 
Redeemer was to be both God and man — God, 
by reason of his eternal generation in the bosom 
of his Father ; man, because He was to be born of 
the Ever Virgin Mary. If our Saviour be true man, 
He must have a body and a soul like ours ; He 
cannot be true God without possessing the divine 
nature ; and therefore,' while in the mystery of un- 
created life we have one substance with a three- 
fold personality, in the mystery of the Incarnation 
we have three distinct substances — the divinity, 
the human flesh, and the human soul — united in 
one divine person, the person of Christ Jesus. . 



The Incarnation. 



189 



This is, and has always been, the belief of the 
Catholic Church. No part of it can be denied 
without perverting the very idea of the dogma. 
Without the union of the three substances, — or, 
in other words, of the two natures, the divine and 
the human, in Christ, — we fail to understand 
God's dispensation for our well-being. We need 
not rehearse man's helpless condition after sin — it 
is familiar to all ; but when we come to consider 
the whole of mankind with regard to God, or, 
rather, when we consider how God might have 
dealt with fallen humanity, a twofold supposition 
arises in our mind. God might have acted either 
as a stern judge or as a tender father, ignored or 
satisfied the claims of His mercy, allowed the 
divine justice to revenge His rights, trampled 
upon by ungrateful creatures, or received back 
His wandering and repentant children. 

In the former supposition, man's ruin would 
have been consummated. To revolt against God 
is to perpetrate a wrong which no creature can 
redress. If all the men who have lived, and shall 
live to the end of time, if all the myriads of an- 
gelic spirits, who were the first-born of God's 
creative love, if all the imaginable worlds of intel- 
lectual beings were called into existence, and all 
were to unite in contrition and love, this universal 



190 



The True Religion. 



expiation could not atone for man's guilt. An 
infinite reparation is needed to satisfy God's jus- 
tice to the full ; and men and angels and myriads 
of possible creatures, brought into existence with 
all the love, adoration, and expiation of which 
they are capable, could never scale the height of 
infinity. Man's ruin would have been consum- 
mated, as the ruin was consummated of those 
angels whose rebellion God punished with the ful- 
ness of His justic?. 

As God mio^ht have listened to the claims of His 

o 

justice, so He might have chosen that His mercy 
alone should triumph. This also was possible, as 
nothing can be too great for God's liberality. God 
might have forgiven man upon his first cry of 
repentance ; He might have accepted the slight 
and insignificant reparation man could offer; He 
might even have forgiven man without any repa- 
ration at all. God's merciful hand might have 
drawn man out of the abyss of his iniquity, re- 
stored him to his former state, changed him from 
a child of wrath to a child of love, pressed him to 
His divine heart, and placed upon his brow the 
crown of eternal glory. Thus God might have 
acted, had He wished that man's salvation should 
be wholly the work of His infinite mercy. 
v Both of these suppositions were possible. God 



The Incarnation. 



191 



adopted neither ; or, rather, in the depth of His 
wisdom, in the wonders of His omnipotence, in the 
magnificence of His love, He decreed that infinite 
mercy and infinite justice should exchange the 
kiss of peace ; that His mercy should have a com- 
plete triumph, while all the claims of His justice 
were to be satisfied. This was God's plan ; and 
to effect this, the Incarnation was decreed. A 
man was to come, and he was to be such as to 
be able to pay the infinite debt, and satisfy God's 
justice to the full. He was to be a man, yet not a 
mere man ; the Redeemer was to be God's own 
Son made man. u Sing praises and rejoice, O 
daughter of Sion, for behold I come, and I will 
dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord." 
(Zach. ii. 10.) " Take courage and fear not ; be- 
hold, your God will bring you the revenge of 
recompense ; God Himself will come and save you." 
(Isa. xxx. 2.) " The Lord Himself shall give you 
a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a 
Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel." 
(Isa. vii. 14.) 

Such was God's dispensation. Justice and 
mercy were both to triumph. The atonement was 
required in satisfaction of God's justice ; but, to 
satisfy God's mercy toward man, it was to be 
made by Him in whom the fulness of the Godhead 



192 



The True Religion. 



dwelleth corporally. Consequently, without a real 
human nature, the required expiation was impos- 
sible ; God, as God, cannot suffer, and expiate 
our sins. Without the divine nature, the expia- 
tion would have been of no avail, because it would 
have been finite. Without the unity of person, 
man's actions could not be accounted as God's. 
But when the human nature has become the 
nature of the Son of God, and, having no person- 
ality of its own, it subsists by the very personality 
of the Son of God, then whatever is performed 
in and by that human nature is attributed to the 
Son of God Himself; and, accordingly, the actions, 
the sufferings, the death of Christ-man are the 
actions, the sufferings, the death of Christ-God. 

This is the sublime philosophy of faith. Diffi- 
cult as this mystery may be in itself to our under- 
standing, God was pleased to sketch it out in the 
formation of man. 

Before the sixth day of creation, two worlds 
had been produced by God, the world of spirits 
and the world of matter. Nothing piit the one 
in close connection with the other ; nothing 
seemed capable of approximating them, or clos- 
ing the abyss that intervened between them, 
when God by an act of His supreme power com- 
bined the two into one being, one nature, one 



The Incarnation. 



193 



person. From that moment the body began to 
live with the life of the soul, and the soul began 
to share the corporeal existence of the body ; but, 
united though they were, the body was neither 
absorbed by the soul, nor the soul consumed by 
the body. They remain still distinct in that 
union which makes man the link between the 
spiritual and the material world. 

Something similar to this is seen in the mystery 
of the Incarnation. Before its accomplishment 
God was and man was; there was the infinite and 
the finite; the immutable and the changeable; 
the eternal and that which is limited by time. 
The abyss which separated them was infinite ; no 
human, no angelic mind could have devised a 
means of approximating the two. That, however, 
which created man cannot conceive is not always 
impossible to God. As a mysterious bond unites 
man's soul to the body, so a more mysterious 
bond came to unite God to man ; as the soul and 
the body do not change their nature, notwith- 
standing the union of the two, in like manner, 
notwithstanding the union of the divine and the 
human nature, neither is God converted into the 
flesh, nor the flesh changed into God; as the body 
and the soul — two distinct substances — form but 
one man, so God and man — two distinct natures 



194 



The True Religion. 



— form but one Redeemer, one Master, one King, 
one Lord — the Lord, the King, the Master, the 
Redeemer Jesus Christ. 

Several questions connected with the dogma of 
the Incarnation are dwelt upon by Catholic 
divines. They do not give their views on this 
subject as dogmas of faith, but merely offer us a 
glimpse of the wisdom with which all God's 
works — and this especially, the most wonderful of 
all — are stamped. We shall content ourselves 
with a word or two. 

The Incarnation may first be considered with 
regard to the Person who assumed the human 
nature. We know that in so far as it is God's 
work ad extra, the Incarnation was effected by 
the three divine Persons. The creation of Our 
Lord's soul, the formation of His body from the 
substance of the Ever Virgin Mary, the union of 
both to the divine Person, are the work of the 
whole Trinity; yet neither the Father nor the 
Holy Ghost, but the Son alone, became man, 
because He alone assumed the human nature. 
Upon this the great Doctors ask wh}^ God the 
Son, and not any other divine person, became 
man. They begin by adoring God's decrees and 
confessing the shortsightedness of our mental 
vision ; yet they venture to enumerate several 



The Incarnation. 



195 



reasons, We read in St. John that in the begin- 
ning "all things were made by Him [the Word] ; 
and without Him was made nothing that was 
made." What more fitting than that man's 
restoration should come through Him by whom 
man was first made ? Again, by the Incarnation 
man was to regain the title and the reality of 
God's adopted child; should not this adoption be 
acquired through the merits of Him whom God 
the Father begets in the splendors of eternity ? 
Once more : was not the Saviour to enlighten 
every man that cometh into this world, and dispel 
the ignorance of divine things which sin had 
brought upon the human race? And was it not 
most fitting that He should cause this enlight- 
enment who is the substantial wisdom of the 
Father? 

The reasons of the time chosen for the accom- 
plishment of this wonderful mystery are covered 
with a more impenetrable veil ; yet may we not 
say that pride having been the cause of man's sin, 
man was not to contemplate the Saviour in human 
flesh until he had felt his helplessness and the 
full weight of his misery? May we not say that 
the Incarnation, being God's greatest work, should 
be preceded by long centuries of expectation ? 
Does not the long-continued desire of some special 



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benefit urge us to prize it more highly, once it has 
become our possession ? Nor did the delay de- 
prive man of the necessary means of salvation. 
For as we obtain grace through the merits of the 
Saviour who has already come, so the generations 
that preceded Our Lord's advent in the flesh 
received grace in view of the Saviour who was to 
come. 

Lastly, the most wonderful fitness may be seen 
in the mode of the Incarnation. The Son of God 
was not to take up human flesh without the con- 
sent of the Virgin, elected to be the Saviour's 
mother. We read, accordingly, that an angel was 
sent to her; and the Son of God became man 
only after that privileged woman had answered : 
"Let it be done according to Thy word." We 
shall explain this more at length when speaking 
of devotion to Mary. Here let it suffice to 
remark that as a woman had co-operated in the 
work of our ruin, so a woman was to co-operate in 
the work of our redemption. Her co-operation, 
however, detracts in nothing from the fulness of 
Our Lord's merits, as we shall see later on. 

We may conclude these few reflections on the 
mystery of the Incarnation by remarking with 
Fr. Faber (The Blessed Sacrament, book 1, 
ch. i.) that the Incarnation is the cause of all 



The Incarnation. 



197 



that is supernatural in the world. "From it 
come revelations, prophecies, miracles, and all 
sanctity. From it angelic ministries, the opera- 
tions of grace, the efficacy of the Sacrament, 
and the phenomena of the Catholic Church. 
From it, with whatever corruptions falsified, come 
the laws, literatures, politics, philosophies, which 
are actually uppermost in the world. From it 
everything which softens life, consoles sorrow, 
soothes poverty, and makes the world endurable. 
All time belongs to it. For all grace and all 
glory that were in ages gone — antediluvian, patri- 
archal, Gentile, Jew, or Christian — were from it, 
all are from it now, and all will be altogether 
from it till time shall be no more. Nay, more: 
for as the predestination of Jesus adorned the 
eternity that was before the foundation of the 
world, so will His kingdom and glory be hence- 
forth itself eternal." 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE EUCHARIST. 

Proofs of the Real Presence — The promise, John vi. — Point 
at issue — Construction to be put upon Our Lord's words — Hy- 
pothesis of some Protestants refuted — The metaphorical meaning 
disproved by reason; excluded by the very words; inconsistent 
with Our Lord's reply to the Jews — The words of the institution 
are to be taken literally — Bread and wine not signs of Our Lord's 
body and blood — Teaching of tradition — The Fathers of the first 
centuries. 

Jesus living in the midst of us; concealed 
under the veil of material elements ; as truly and 
substantially on the altar as He is in heaven; 
this, indeed, is a mystery of unspeakable consola- 
tion, which strengthens our souls, ennobles our 
lives, makes our temples the true house of God, 
and calls forth our warmest love and most pro- 
found adoration. After what has been remarked 
in the first part of our work, we require no 
further argument of the truth of this dogma ; it 
is sufficient for us to be made aware that it is 
taught by the infallible authority of the Church; 
but, for all that, some profit will certainly accrue 

198 



The Eucharist. 



199 



if we examine into, and sound the grounds of our 
belief. The decrees of the Church concerning it 
are well known ; we shall content ourselves with 
the scriptural argument, and one or two quota- 
tions from the early Fathers. 

We read in St. John (vi.) that, after having 
fed a large multitude of people with a few loaves 
of bread, our Lord spoke thus : " I am the living 
bread, which came down from heaven. If any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever ; and 
the bread which I will give is my flesh for the 
life of the world. The Jews, therefore, debated 
among themselves, saying, How can this man 
give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to 
them : Amen, Amen, I say unto you, unless you 
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His 
blood, you shall not have life in you. He that 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life 
everlasting, and I will raise him up at the last 
day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood 
is drink indeed ; he that eateth my flesh and 
drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. 
. . . These things He said teaching in the syna- 
gogue at Capharnaum. Many, therefore, of His 
disciples, hearing it, said, This saying is hard, 
and who can hear it?" 

Are these words to be understood in their 



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The True Religion. 



obvious and literal, or in their figurative sense? 
On this the whole question hinges. If in the 
literal, then the entire controversy is settled ; we 
can harbor no doubt that the Eucharist, as we 
Catholics believe, was here promised, and after- 
wards instituted. If our Lord's words have noth- 
ing but a figurative meaning, then this passage of 
St. John contains no proof at all of our dogma. 
How shall we determine this meaning? It is 
advisable to prescind, for the time being, from the 
different views which Protestants and Catholics 
take of the subject. Their disbelief of the Real 
Presence and our belief might be an obstacle to a 
good understanding between us. As their relig- 
ious training prevents them from seeing in this 
passage the reality of Oar Lord's presence in the 
Eucharist, so the firm conviction we cherish of 
the truth of the dogma might be said to influence 
us in rejecting the supposed figurative meaning of 
the words under consideration. Let us, therefore, 
keep our private conviction in abeyance ; let us 
go back to the very time in which those words 
wsre uttered, and ascertain what they were in- 
tended to convey, and how they were understood. 

The question, therefore, amounts to this: first, 
what construction did the Jews put upon Our 
Lord's words? Did they understand Him to 



The Eucharist. 



201 



speak literally, or figuratively? We reply that 
the Jews understood Our Lord's words as they 
sound — literally; second, were the Jews at fault 
in this? We ' again reply that they were not; 
for our Lord's words and actions do not bear 
explanation unless they understood Him aright. 
Both assertions call for demonstration ; but this 
once put forward, we shall have proved by the 
very fact the doctrine of the Eucharist as it is 
held by every true Catholic. 

And, first, the Jews did not and could not un- 
derstand Our Lord's words metaphorically. The 
phrases to eat the flesh and to drink the blood of 
any one, apart from their literal meaning, signi- 
fied nothing else among the Jews but to do a 
person a grievous injury. This is proved from 
four passages, the only ones of the Old Testament 
in which the phrases occur. (See Ps. xxvii. 2 ; Job 
xix. 22 ; Micheas iii. 3 ; Eccles. iv. 5.) But this 
meaning is evidently to be rejected ; otherwise, 
Our Lord's words would signify, "unless you do 
the Son of Man some grievous injury, you shall 
not have life in you." If, therefore, this meta- 
phorical meaning, the only one employed by the 
Jews, is to be rejected, we must of necessity 
admit that Our Lord's words were understood by 
them literally. 



202 



The True Religion. 



A great deal of ingenuity is displayed by those 
who deny the Real Presence, and endeavor to 
show that the words cited mean " to believe in 
Christ ; to eat him spiritually by faith." To this 
we reply : First, the meaning of words is to be 
determined by the usage existing at the time they 
are employed, and not by that of after ages. 
But this metaphorical sense was invented centu- 
ries afterwards, by men who were bent upon deny- 
ing the Real Presence, which many generations of 
Christians had accepted in their belief ; therefore, 
the Jews could not have thus understood Our 
Lord's words. Our opponents must needs prove 
first that their figurative meaning was not un- 
known to the Jews, before we take their objection 
into consideration. Second, Our Lord spoke of 
the bread which was to be given : u The bread 
which I will give you is my flesh." But faith in 
Him was had by many, and had been urged by 
Our Blessed Lord on more than one occasion pre- 
viously ; therefore, Our Lord's words cannot be 
understood of faith. Third, Our Lord accurately 
distinguishes between the eating of His body and 
the drinking of His blood. Now, if the words 
were to be understood figuratively, there would 
be no reason for that marked distinction, because 
they would signify exactly the same thing. Fourth, 



The Eucharist. 



203 



the figurative meaning is evidently excluded by 
the very words ; for Our Lord says, "my flesh' is 
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." If 
these words do not signify the real substance of 
His body and blood, no words are clear enough 
to express the same reality. 

This being the obvious and natural sense of 
Our Lord's words, the Jews could not have under- 
stood them otherwise ; nor in fact did they. For, 
had they understood Him to refer only to belief 
in Himself, could they have said that His was a 
" hard saying " ? Could they have insisted upon 
the impossibility of what He proposed to them ? 
Would they have abandoned Him? Moreover, 
before uttering the " hard saying," Our Lord had 
spoken to them of the necessit}' of believing in 
Him; for, upon their asking what they should do 
"to work the works of God," Jesus answered, 
u This is the work of God, that you believe in Him 
whom He hath sent." We do not read that they 
objected to it ; only they required Him to prove 
that He was sent from God. " They said, there- 
fore, to Him, what sign dost thou show that we 
may see and believe thee?" The hard saying, 
therefore, could not have been the necessity of 
believing in Him ; and, consequently, they un- 
derstood Our Lord's words as referring to His 



204 



The True Religion. 



flesh and blood. This it was which they refused 
to accept for their belief ; this they deemed impos- 
sible ; on account of this, they ceased to follow 
Him, and walked no longer with Him. 

Now, did the Jews understand Our Lord cor- 
rectly? We answer in the affirmative; and the 
Gospel itself allows of no doubt in the matter, 
for Our Lord's words and acts cannot be explained 
upon any other hypothesis. 

Assuredly, if Our Lord had intended to speak 
figuratively while his hearers had understood Him 
literally, He ought to have pointed out their mis- 
take; especially when the literal sense was, as we 
have seen, the most obvious and most natural. 
But Our Lord did not call attention to this as 
their erroneous opinion ; on the contrary, He re- 
peated the same expression. Therefore, Our Lord 
really intended to convey the meaning which the 
Jews took from His words. 

Nay, more ; not only did Our Lord again em- 
ploy the same terms, but He reiterated them with 
more emphasis, affirming more explicitly that 
which His hearers deemed to be impossible : 
" Amen, amen, I say unto you, unless you eat my 
flesh and drink my blood, you shall not have life 
in you. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood 
is drink indeed." Words as explicit as these 



The Eucharist. 



205 



were not surely calculated to remove an error, had 
there been any, but would have given it deeper 
root in their minds. 

Again, Our Lord's reply to the incredulous Jews 
was such as to confirm a doctrine, the neglect of 
which involved the privation of supernatural life 
and, as a consequence, an eternal punishment. 
Could an eternal punishment be promulgated for 
the neglect of that which the Jews refused to be- 
lieve, if they had not understood what it was they 
were to believe ? Should we not, on the contrary, 
expect that Our Lord would speak so as to be 
understood, and declare what He meant, if the 
hearers had failed to understand Him? Human 
speakers would not fail in making such a declara- 
tion ; and can He, who is wisdom and goodness 
itself, act otherwise, when there is question of a 
precept, the neglect of which entails such grievous 
consequences? If Our Lord did not disabuse His 
hearers, what else can we say but that there was 
no call to disabuse them, and this precisely because 
they had understood Him correctly? 

Once more, did not Our Lord say to His disci- 
ples, when they murmured against Him, "Does 
this scandalize you?" If the hearers had misun- 
derstood His words, the scandal would not have 
come from what He had said, but from the imag- 



206 



The True Religion. 



inary meaning they had attached to His declara- 
tions. Here, again, therefore, we must say that 
Our Lord's words cannot be explained but upon 
the hypothesis that the Jews had understood Him 
correctly. But, if Our Lord's words are to be taken 
literally, there is no doubt that He promised the 
Eucharist such as we Catholics believe it. There- 
fore, the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist is true. 

We follow a similar line of argument in proving 
the same dogma from the words employed at its 
institution, because the objections made against 
it are alike in substance. To refer only to the 
Holy Gospels, the institution of the Sacrament of 
the Altar is related by three Evangelists, Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke. The narrations are substantially 
the same ; in all we read the words pronounced by 
Christ at the Last Supper, " This is my body ; this 
is my blood." Are these words to be understood 
literally, or figuratively? After what has been 
said, we might be satisfied with arguing thus : Our 
Lord gave at the Last Supper that which He had 
promised, and which the Jews considered impossi- 
ble; but Our Lord promised His real flesh and 
blood; therefore, these He gave at the Last Supper. 
By the institution we learn nothing new apart 
from the manner in which Our Lord's flesh and 
blood have become our food and drink. 



The Eucharist. 



207 



What, however, if we consider the words them- 
selves? We reply that they cannot be under- 
stood but as they stand ; Protestants, on the con- 
trary, take nothing from them but a metaphorical 
meaning, as if Our Lord intended to say: " This 
bread signifies my body ; this wine signifies my 
blood " ; just as when pointing to a picture, a 
map, or bust, we say : this is George Washington; 
this is Europe ; this is Henry Clay. But there is 
no parity between the two. Portraits, busts, 
maps, and the like, are by their very nature im- 
ages of the things they represent. They are sym- 
bols, known as such. There is, therefore, no 
necessity for informing the person whom we 
address that it is a picture of George Washington, 
and not George Washington himself, flesh and 
blood. There is here no possibility of mistake. 
But what if that which is said to be a sign of 
something else, neither by its own nature, nor by 
custom, nor by previous warning, is known to be 
such? Suppose, says the author of " The Faith of 
Our Fathers," that a man points to a morsel of bread 
and saj^s : " This is Thomas Aquinas," meaning 
that Saint Thomas gives us the wholesome food 
of his doctrine, would any one understand him ? 
Surely not. Now, bread is not by itself the sym- 
bol of Christ's body, nor wine the symbol of His 



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The True Religion. 



bloocl. Deception, therefore, would in this case 
be inevitable, were not Our Lord to inform those 
to whom He addresses Himself, that He takes 
bread and wine as the figure of His body and 
blood. No such warning is given to the Apostles ; 
they only know that nothing is impossible to God; 
they only remember what He had promised. 
Therefore the words of the institution are to be 
taken as they stand — that is, literally; and, as a 
consequence, they prove the dogma of the Real 
Presence. 

With regard to the Fathers and Doctors of the 
Church, who may be quoted in support of the 
dogma already established from Holy Scriptures, 
we refer the reader to the important conferences 
of Cardinal Wiseman on the Eucharist, or to any 
treatise of theology in which this matter is pro- 
fessedly expounded. But although a work like 
ours is withheld, by its scope, from dwelling at 
any great length upon the patristic argument, yet 
we cannot forbear adducing the testimony of a few 
Fathers of the first centuries of the Christian era. 
Saint Ignatius, the martyr, a disciple of the Apos- 
tles themselves, writing to the Christians of 
Smyrna, said that certain heretics " refrain from 
the Eucharist and the oblations because they con- 
fess not that the Eucharist is the flesh of the 



The Eucharist. 



209 



Lord, which suffered for our sins, and which the 
Father through His goodness hath raised." For 
the second century, it is sufficient to cite the 
brief words of Saint Justin Martyr: "We re- 
ceive not these things as common bread and 
ordinary drink, but, as God has taught us ; they 
are the flesh and blood of Christ." {Apologia 
Secunda.) In the third century we have, among 
many others, Saint Cyprian, who remarks: "The 
bread which Our Lord gave to His disciples, 
being changed, not in shape but in nature, by the 
omnipotency of the Word, is made flesh." QSerm. de 
Coena Domini.*) As to the fourth century, who 
has not read the eloquent words of Saint John 
Chrysostom ? " How many now say, I wish I had 
seen Christ's face, His shape, His garments! Be- 
hold you see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him. 
You were content to see only His garments, and 
lo ! He gives Himself to you to be seen, to be 
handled, to be eaten, to take Him within 3 r ou." 
(llom. 83 in Matt, et 60 ad pop. Antioch.) And 
again, " This table supplies the place of the crib ; 
for here, also, is laid the body of Our Lord, not, 
indeed, wrapt up in swaddling clothes, as He was 
then, but clothed all over with the Holy Ghost." 
{J)e Beato Philog.) Once more the holy Doctor 
speaks thus, in his first sermon On the treason of 



210 



The True Religion. 



Judas: "It is not man that makes the things that 
appear to open view become Christ's body and 
blood, but that same Christ that was crucified for 
us. The priest fulfilling his office stands pro- 
nouncing those words ; but the power and the 
grace are of God. c This is my body,' he says. 
This word transmutes the things that appear to 
open view. And as that word that said c Increase 
and multiply and fill the earth' was pronounced, 
indeed, but once, but through all time is actually 
operative on our nature for the procreation of 
children ; so, also, that word, uttered but once, 
makes from that time to this, and till His own 
advent, the sacrifice perfect at every table in the 
churches." 



CHAPTER V. 



WONDERS OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 

Three distinct dogmas; their mutual relations — Christ whole 
and entire present in this sacrament; and in each particle of 
either species — In this sacrament some things effected by the 
words of consecration, some by concomitance — The body of Our 
Lord present in the sacrament, not as in a place — Manifold 
presence — Reason cannot demonstrate the intrinsic impossibility 
of the wonders of the Eucharist. 

Our belief in the Eucharist resolves itself into 
three distinct propositions. We believe, first, that 
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made man, 
is present in the holy Eucharist as really and sub- 
stantially as He is in heaven ; second, that after 
the words of the consecration have been pro- 
nounced upon the bread and wine by the sacra- 
mentally anointed of the Lord, the substances of 
bread and wine cease to exist, the accidents or 
species thereof only remaining ; third, that the 
whole substance of bread aud wine is changed into 
the body and blood of Our Lord. This change 
is called by the Church transubstantiation. It has 
no counterpart in the order either of nature or of 
grace ; it belongs exclusively to this mystery. 

211 



212 



The True Religion. 



Although these three dogmas are intimately 
connected, they are really different. The second 
implies the first, without necessarily implying the 
third ; and yet the third cannot be admitted with- 
out admitting the first and the second. He, there- 
fore, who would deny the first — the Real Presence 
— must deny accordingly the two others ; but one 
might deny the second and the third without 
denying the first, as they do who believe that Our 
Lord co-exists in the Eucharist with bread and 
wine. We can also conceive that one might con- 
fess Our Lord's substantial presence and the ab- 
sence of bread and wine in the Eucharist, and yet 
reject transubstantiation, only because he would 
imagine some change or other different from that 
defined by the Church. The true doctrine on the 
Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist requires, for its 
entirety, the three propositions mentioned above, 
propositions which the Church promulgates as 
dogmas of faith, to be received of all. These we 
shall endeavor to explain ; and we shall strive, as 
far as in us lies, to catch a glimpse — for glimpse 
only may it be — of the wonders concealed in 
each. 

Let us begin with the Real Presence. Though 
it be>true that the words of the consecration effect 
immediately only what they signify, it would be 



Wonders of the Heal Presence. 213 



sheer nonsense to suppose that there is nothing 
save Our Lord's body under the species of bread, 
and under the species of wine nothing save His 
blood. Our Lord is whole and entire under each 
species ; that is, not only His body and blood, but 
His soul and divinity, are contained under each 
species. We must not, however, believe that 
everything belonging to Our Lord is present in 
the Sacrament by the same efficacy. This is clearly 
put in the Catechism of the Council of Trent: 
"As the words of the consecration effect what 
they signify, sacred writers usually say that what- 
ever the form [the words] expresses is contained 
in the Sacrament by virtue of the Sacrament ; and 
hence, could we suppose any one thing to be en- 
tirely separated from the rest, the Sacrament, in 
their opinion, would be found to contain solely 
what the form expresses. But some things are 
contained in the Sacrament because united to those 
which are expressed in the form. For instance, the 
words, This is my body, which comprise the form 
used to consecrate the bread, signify the body of 
Our Lord ; and hence the body of Our Lord is 
contained in the Eucharist by virtue of the Sacra- 
ment. As, however, to the body are united his 
blood, his soul, his divinity, they, too, must be 
found to co-exist in the Sacrament ; not, however, 



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The True Religion. 



by virtue of the consecration, but in virtue of the 
union that subsists between them and the body, 
and this theologians express by the word concomi- 
tance. Hence, it is clear that Christ whole and 
entire is contained in the Sacrament; for when 
two things are actually united, where one is, 
the other must also be." If it be asked why it 
was ordained that two distinct consecrations 
should take place, the same source furnishes the 
answer: " Because they represent in a more lively 
manner the Passion of Our Lord, in which His 
blood was separated from His body ; and also be- 
cause the Sacrament is to be used by us as the 
food and nourishment of our souls. It was most 
accordant with this its use that it should be insti- 
tuted as meat and drink, which obviously consti- 
tute the proper food of man. 

Let us advance. Our Lord's substantial pres- 
ence in the Eucharist forces us to admit that He 
is whole and entire under the whole species of 
bread and wine. Nor does this suffice ; we must 
also admit that He is whole and entire under every 
one of their parts. For the proof of this latter 
assertion, we have only to turn to the Scripture, 
where we learn that when Our Lord instituted the 
Eucharist, He divided the consecrated species 
among the Apostles, and still gave Himself to each 



Wonders of the Heal Presence. 215 



one of them. Should one assert that the bread was 
divided before the consecration, and cite in sup- 
port of his opinion verse 19 of the twenty-second 
chapter of St. Luke, "And taking bread, He gave 
thanks, and brake, and gave to them, saying, This 
is my body, which is given for you," he could not 
say the same of the chalice ; for we read in the 
very same chapter, "And, having taken the 
chalice, He gave thanks, and said, Take, and 
divide it among you." Now, if all the Apostles 
drank of the same chalice, and if each received 
Our Loid, Our Lord was not less whole and entire 
under the part taken by St. Peter, or St. John, or 
any of the rest, than He was under the whole con- 
secrated species. 

From this we gather, that our Lord is not in 
the Sacrament as in a place. His body and 
blood have not the mode of existence which is 
connatural to material substances, but exist in 
the Sacrament without occupying space. It also 
follows, that Our Lord's human nature acquires a 
manifold presence, without which He could not 
be whole and entire on every altar where the 
consecration takes place. Both these points give 
rise to serious difficulties. We must remember 
that God's infinite power is not to be measured 
by our feeble intellects. As there are limits 



216 



The True Religion. 



where human ken must cease, so are there bounds 
to the understanding of mortal man ; and if it 
would be folly to deny the existence of bodily 
objects situate far and away from the reach of 
our sight, it were no less absurd to deny the pos- 
sibility of certain things only because they are 
placed beyond and above the sphere of our mental 
vision. It is often said: such a thing is impossi- 
ble ; therefore it cannot have been revealed. Why 
may we not turn the argument, and say : such a 
thing is revealed ; therefore it cannot be proved 
impossible ? The latter mode of arguing is safer 
than the former ; for we can always know that 
which is revealed, whereas we cannot always know 
that which is impossible, however much we may 
be misled by prejudice or passion to pronounce it 
such. Hence, it were far more reasonable to 
argue from the revelation to the possibility and 
existence, than from the imagined impossibility of 
a thing to the denial of the same. If, therefore, 
the proofs we have given place beyond doubt the 
revelation of the dogma, nothing is left but to 
confess our ignorance, and acknowledge the limit- 
edness of our reason. 

With this in view, let us examine the argument 
by which the Catholic dogma is assailed. The 
principle of our opponents cannot be questioned. 



Wonders of the Real Presence. 217 



We grant, and most willingly, that 44 that is to be 
rejected the impossibility of which reason demon- 
strates." But this principle will not warrant 
their conclusion, unless they prove that "it is 
impossible for matter to exist without occupying 
space, and to exist in different places at the same 
time." Whence will they derive the proof of this 
assertion? Not, certainly, from experience: for 
experience deals with the ordinary phenomena of 
nature; it bears relation to the existing order of 
things; it acquaints us with what is, and not 
with what can be. To speak pertinently to the 
subject, our opponents must stand on metaphysi- 
cal grounds, and derive the impossibility of what 
we assert to be true, from the very essence of 
things. How can this demonstration be achieved, 
so little being known of matter and its essential 
constituents ? How can such and such properties 
be said to run counter to the essence of matter, 
when we do not know in what the essence of 
matter truly consists? 

True it is, there are cases in which the repug- 
nance of some attribute may be asserted, although 
we do not thoroughly know the essence of the 
being under consideration. Thus, we say that 
thought is repugnant to matter ; but we cannot 
say that compenetration stands to matter in the 



218 



The True Religion. 



same relation as thought. For, notwithstanding 
the imperfect knowledge we have of material sub- 
stances, of this much, at least, we are sure, that 
matter cannot be conceived without parts and 
parts. Now, philosophers prove to evidence that 
the thinking subject must needs be simple and 
spiritual ; therefore, unless we admit that matter 
is compound and yet not compound, simple and 
yet not simple, we are forced to acknowledge the 
intrinsic repugnance of thinking-matter. Not so 
with regard to compenetration. It does not 
destroy the very concept of matter; for, even 
admitting that impenetrability, as a power, is an 
essential property of matter, it cannot be proved 
that its actual exercise is likewise essential. 
What, then, if that powder be prevented from being 
exerted? Does the absence of action destroy the 
power itself? Surely not, otherwise, we should 
be obliged to say that our mental faculties are 
destroyed when they are at rest. But the exer- 
cise of that power is the very reason of the 
actual occupation of space by the material sub- 
stance ; therefore, as long as the suspension of 
the exercise of that power is not proved impos- 
sible, neither is compenetration proved repugnant. 
Moreover, is not impenetrability a force as finite 
in its nature as the being to which it belongs, and 



Wonders of the Meal Presence. 219 



by which it can be exerted? And should we 
not admit that an infinite power, such as God's is, 
may counteract the resistance offered by a finite 
force ? But the necessity of local extension comes 
from that very resistance ; therefore, this resist- 
ance once overcome, the necessity of local exten- 
sion subsists no longer, and, consequently, several 
parts may be present in the same point of space. 

Greater still is the difficulty of conceiving the 
simultaneous presence of a being in different 
places. We seem to admit that the being is at 
the same time one and many, divided and yet not 
divided from itself, and the like. The imagination 
stands in our way with regard to this more than 
w r ith regard to the former point of the Catholic 
dogma ; but no man of right judgment would 
allow his reason to be guided by his imaginative 
powers, in matters like these. Is it not almost as 
difficult to conceive the presence of our rational 
soul in the body ? Let us dwell upon this ; it 
contains the best illustration of our dogma. 

Sound philosophy teaches and proves that man's 
soul is simple and spiritual in its nature. Now, 
that which is simple and spiritual, to exist at all, 
must be whole and entire, no matter where it be. 
Knowing, therefore, both from experience and 
reason, that the soul is present in every part of 



220 



The True Religion. 



the human body, we are compelled to admit that 
it is whole and entire in each of these parts. Is 
the soul's entity multiplied by this presence? 
Are not the parts in which the soul is present 
distinct from each other? That these parts be 
actually united matters little for our purpose ; it is 
always true that the same being is present in 
distinct, though united, parts of space. And even 
were we to consider these parts as separated from 
each other, what metaphysical principle can prove, 
beyond a doubt, the repugnance of the existence 
of the soul in each of these parts just as before ? 
Why should the want of continuity render im- 
possible that presence, which existed in continued 
matter? This the imagination cannot picture to 
itself; and yet it is admitted by reason. Why, 
then, do we mention impossibilities when speaking 
of Our Lord's presence in the Eucharist. In 
asserting that this part of our dogma cannot be 
defended without rendering the being one and 
many, divided and not divided from itself, and the 
like, we but take the phantom for the reality. 
The being ceases not to be one ; it is such by its 
own entity, and not by its presence to one point 
of space ; and this entity or reality is numerically 
the same, wherever it exists by God's infinite 
power. The places in which the being is present 



Wonders of the Real Presence. 221 



are manifold; one place is distinct and divided 
from another; but the being is neither divided 
from itself, nor multiplied; just as the human 
soul is neither divided from itself nor multiplied, 
although it is present in the different parts of the 
human body. 



CHAPTER VI. 



TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

The substance of bread and wine no longer present after con- 
secration — Proved from Scripture — Meaning of the word tran- 
substantiation — Its fitness to express the Catholic dogma — The 
dogma of transubstantiation proved from Scripture, and the con- 
current testimony of the Fathers — The fact of nutrition consis- 
tent with the dogma of transubstantiation — The accidents remain 
in the Eucharist without a subject — Strange opinion of some 
Catholic philosophers — The separability of accidents from their 
substance cannot be proved impossible. 

We have not yet done with the wonders of the 
Eucharist. We believe that the whole substance 
of bread and wine is changed into the substance 
of Our Lord's body and blood: "If any one shall 
say," decrees the Council of Trent, "that in the 
Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there 
remains the substance of bread and wine, together 
with the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and shall deny that wonderful and singu- 
lar conversion of the whole substance of the 
bread into the body, and of the whole substance 
of the wine into the blood, the species of bread 
and wine alone remaining, which conversion the 

222 



Transu bstantiation. 



223 



Catholic Church most fittingly calls Transubstan- 
tiation, let him be anathema." Although, as we 
remarked, these two articles of our faith are 
different, yet we shall not speak of them sepa- 
rately, for the arguments which establish the 
former, apply likewise, on wider development, to 
the latter. 

We affirm, therefore, that the substance of 
bread and wine ceases to be present in the Eu- 
charist. This dogma is set forth evidently in 
Holy Scripture. Our Lord's words, This is my 
body, this is my blood, would prove false, were the 
substance of bread and wine to remain after con- 
secration. For the word this expresses the entire 
substance of the thing present. Now, the thing 
present is said to be Our Lord's body and blood; 
the proposition, therefore, cannot be true unless it 
is admitted that bread is Our Lord's body, and 
wine His blood. But this is an evident absurdity; 
therefore, the substance of bread and wine is not 
designated by the pronoun, and, consequently, it 
must cease to exist after consecration. Again, if 
the mere presence of Our Lord in bread and wine 
would cause Him to exclaim with truth, " This is 
my body, this is my blood," the mere presence 
of God in any material object, say in an apple, 
should be sufficient to make us say, pointing to 



224 



The True Religion. 



the apple, " This is God." There is no denying 
the parity, unless we wish to admit, with some, 
that Our Lord does not merely co-exist with 
bread and wine, but is substantially united to 
them. But we would thus avoid one absurdity by 
falling into another and a greater ; for we would 
declare that Our Lord is really made bread and 
wine, as He is made flesh. The absurdity of this 
theory becomes still more apparent if we consider 
that not only Our Lord said, " This is my body, 
this is my blood,'' but also spoke of the body 
which was to be delivered for us, and of the 
blood which was to be shed for the remission of 
sins. Certainly this cannot be said of bread and 
wine ; and yet it ought to be said of them, were 
there any truth in our opponents' theory. 

The following remarks will preclude an objec- 
tion which may be urged, and bring us to the 
treatment of the dogma of Transubstantiation. 

Let us suppose two substances, A and B, to 
exist in the same place, one containing the other, 
in such a way, however, that substance A alone is 
manifested by its exterior qualities, while sub- 
stance B, although lying beneath the accidents of 
the former, is actually withdrawn from our sensi- 
tive perception. According to all the rules of 
language and of common sense, the demonstra- 



Transubstantiation. 



225 



tive pronoun — subject of a given proposition — 
could not be referred to substance B, to the 
exclusion of substance A, in which B is contained, 
unless either by its own nature, by custom, or by 
previous warning, substance A is made to contain 
substance B. Thus should one point to a purse, 
containing gold coins, saying, This is gold, we 
would all understand that the attribute gold does 
not refer to the purse itself, or the substance con- 
taining, but to the coins, or substance contained in 
the purse. Should one, on the contrary, place 
the gold coins in an object which is in no way 
destined to this use, in an apple, for instance, and 
say, This is gold, not only would the words be not 
understood, but they would be positively false, 
because the pronoun this refers to the substance, 
which alone the exterior qualities manifest ; that 
is, the apple itself. — Now, bread and wine are 
neither by their own nature, nor by custom, nor 
by special institution, made to contain the body 
and blood ; therefore Our Lord's words, " This is 
my body, this is my blood," would prove false, 
should the bread and wine still continue to exist 
under their own accidents. To be true and capa- 
ble of explanation, they require that that which 
before consecration was bread and wine, by con- 
secration has ceased to be such, and has become 



226 



The True Religion. 



what the predicate signifies ; that is, His body 
and blood. How? Not otherwise than by the 
conversion of one substance into another, which 
change is precisely signified by the word Transub- 
stantiation. Elegant or not, the term is most 
appropriately selected in order to convey the true 
idea of the Catholic dogma; for, as when the 
form alone of a being is changed into another, we 
call this change transformation ; so when the 
whole substance of a being is changed into 
another substance, this change is most fittingly 
called transubstantiation. This is precisely the 
change signified and effected by the words of con- 
secration. 

For, to speak only of the first consecration, the 
proposition, " This is my body," is equivalent to 
these two : that which is now contained under 
these species is my body ; that which is now con- 
tained under these species is no longer bread. Of 
these two propositions, the former is direct and 
affirmative, the latter indirect and negative; both, 
however, contained in their equivalent, " This is 
my body." Now, Our Lord's words would not be 
true unless they effect what they signify. There- 
fore, as, in virtue of the words of consecration, the 
body of Christ begins to exist under the species 
of bread and wine, in virtue of the same words 



Transubstantiation. 



227 



the substance of bread and wine ceases to exist. 
But, again, this change of the whole substance of 
bread into Christ's body, and likewise of the 
whole substance of wine into His blood, wrought 
in virtue of the words of consecration, is precisely 
what the Church calls transubstantiation. There- 
fore, this dogma cannot be gainsaid. 

We shall not tax our reader with a long array 
of quotations from the Fathers and Doctors of the 
Church in support of the dogma we have endeav- 
ored to elucidate. We limit ourselves to the few 
testimonials adduced by the Catechism of the 
Council of Trent. " You see," says Saint Ambrose 
(De Sacramentis, lib. iv., c. 4), "how efficacious 
are the words of Christ. If, then, the word of the 
Lord Jesus is so powerful as to summon creation 
into existence, shall it not require a less exercise 
of power to make that subsist which already has 
existence, and to change it into another thing ? " 
And Saint Augustin (Serm. 28, de Verbis Domini*) : 
" We faithfully confess that before consecration it 
is bread and wine, the produce of nature ; but 
after consecration, it is the body and blood of 
Christ, consecrated by the blessing." " The 
body," says Saint Damascene (De fide orthod., 
lib. iv., c. 14) "is truly united to the divinity, the 
body assumed of the Virgin ; not that the body 



228 



The True Religion. 



thus assumed descends from heaven, but that the 
bread and wine are changed into the body and 
blood of Christ." 

Before passing to the last question concerning 
the sacramental species, upon which we have yet 
to touch in this chapter, let us examine and solve 
an objection brought forward. We do this the 
more willingly because it gives us the opportunity 
of speaking of another wonder of the Eucharist. 

The objection maybe stated thus: Accidents 
cannot of themselves afford substantial nourish- 
ment; and yet the Eucharist has the power of 
nourishing the body. If bread and wine do 
not really co-exist with Our Lord's body and 
blood, we should either deny the fact that the 
Eucharist does nourish, or admit that Our Lord's 
body and blood are converted into our own flesh ; 
but the fact itself cannot be denied, and the second 
hypothesis is an absurdity ; therefore, the sub- 
stance of bread and wine remains in the Eucharist. 

In order that our answer may be understood, we 
must remark, with Fr. Faber and many others, 
that though separated from the substance which 
sustained them, the species or accidents of bread 
and wine follow its laws, and suffer change in due 
season, as they would have suffered change had 
they not been separated from the substance. 



Transubstantiation. 



229 



" Thus, when the change of the species has reached 
that point when it would not be natural for the 
proper substance of bread and wine any longer to 
consist with the accidents, at that moment, by His 
wisdom and omnipotence, Our Lord restores and 
reproduces the substance, withdraws His sacra- 
mental presence, and the usual laws of creation 
resume their interrupted sway." The fact of 
nutrition is not, therefore, to be attributed to any 
substance which is wrongly supposed to co-exist 
with Our Lord's body and blood in the Eucharist, 
but to the substance which begins to exist under 
the species as soon as Our Lord ceases to be 
present. " All this," remarks the same author, 
"is done in so occult a manner that there are no 
external signs by which we can detect either the 
original disappearance or the fresh substitution of 
the substance, so that there is nothing to break 
the meritorious exercise of supernatural faith." 
{The Blessed Sacrament, book 1, sec. iv.) 

What, now, of the accidents of bread and wine ? 
They remain unchanged, as the senses testify ; and 
in this we are not deceived, because the exterior 
qualities of beings are the immediate and explicit 
object of sensitive perception. Though theo- 
logically certain, the real existence of these acci- 
dents is not an explicitly defined dogma of faith. 



230 



The True Religion. 



This fact, however, does not justify the opinion 
put forward by some Catholic men of science. 
They think that the accidents of bread and wine 
remain as to their effects and not as to their real- 
ity ; that is, they maintain that God acts upon our 
senses, and produces all those modifications which 
the sensible qualities of bread and wine would 
produce, were they in existence. Such a theory is 
commonly rejected by theologians ; it runs counter 
to the teaching of the Fathers, and is excluded by 
what we read in the Catechism of the Council of 
Trent, the authority of which no Catholic can 
disregard. It is stated therein that "The third 
effect produced by the words of consecration is 
the existence of the species of bread and wine in 
the Sacrament without a subject — an effect as 
stupendous as it is admirable. What has been 
said in explanation of the two preceding points 
[the Real Presence and transubstantiation] must 
needs facilitate the exposition of this mysterious 
truth. We have already proved that the body and 
blood of Our Lord are really and truly contained 
in the Sacrament, to the entire exclusion of the 
substance of the bread and wine. The accidents 
cannot inhere in the body and blood of Christ; 
they must, therefore, contrary to the physical laws, 
subsist of themselves. This has been at all times 



Transubstantiation. 



231 



the doctrine of the Catholic Church ; and the same 
authorities by which we have already proved that 
the substance of the bread and wine ceases to 
exist in the Eucharist lend their support in estab- 
lishing its truth." 

Can the philosopher demonstrate the impossi- 
bility of such an existence? He cannot. Acci- 
dents have a real entity of their own. They are 
not identical with the substance ; otherwise, they 
could not change, as they do, without the substance 
itself being changed. Why, then, cannot God's 
infinite power keep their entity in existence, even 
after their natural subject has been removed ? 
Whence would the impossibility arise ? It is an- 
swered by some, " From the support which acci- 
dents must receive from the substance." But we 
call for the reason why the support which acci- 
dents receive from their substance cannot be 
supplied by the power of Almighty God. So long 
as the impossibility of this is not demonstrated, 
they have not advanced a step toward their dem- 
onstration. 

We have dwelt at some length upon this mys- 
tery of the Eucharist, because it is the dearest to 
Catholic hearts. It is the dogma which turns 
earth into heaven ; it is the central point of our 
devotion; it is the mystery which gives us a fore- 



232 



The True Religion. 



taste of those consolations which heaven has in 
store for the true followers of Christ. Without 
this belief, the ceremonies of the Church cease to 
be august, the altar is stripped of its sacredness, 
the temple loses its best attractions, because Jesus, 
the magnet of souls, would then be removed from 
the midst of us. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 

Different parts of the sacrament of penance — Reasonableness 
of contrition — Necessity of atoning to God's justice — Satisfac- 
tion consistent with the economy of redemption — Ministerial 
office of the Church as to the forgiveness of sins — What if the 
sinner can have no recourse to it — Duty of confession proved 
from Scripture — Practice of confession not of human invention — 
Contradiction fallen into by our opponents — Difficulty experienced 
in the manifestation of our sins; how alleviated. 

Man remains prone to sin, even after he has 
become, by baptism, God's child and heir of the 
kingdom of heaven. Should he, by actual sin, 
forfeit God's friendship, is it all over with him, or 
has God, in His mercy, vouchsafed him a means 
of regaining sanctifying grace ? All Christians 
agree upon the existence of some means of recon- 
ciliation, but not all admit with the Catholic 
Church that this means is no other than the sac- 
rament of penance. 

This sacrament is not altogether identical with 
confession. Confession is only a part of it, the 
most repugnant, perhaps, to human pride, but by 
no means the most important. In the Catholic 

233 



234 



The True Religion. 



teaching the sacrament of penance is composed of 
three parts : contrition, or the detestation of sin 
committed, with a determination not to sin again ; 
confession, or the declaration of sins, made to a 
person deputed and duly authorized to forgive 
them ; and satisfaction, or the acceptance and 
performance of penitential works in atonement to 
divine justice. 

The first point justifies itself to the eyes of 
reason, it being evident that God's friendship can- 
not be regained unless we retract our evil doings ; 
and, if this retraction be sincere, it necessarily 
implies regret for the past and purpose of amend- 
ment in the future. Moreover, ^eason will admit, 
and readily, that sorrow for sin should arise from 
no earthly consideration. The being offended is 
God ; His commands have been trampled upon ; 
His friendship repudiated; the eternal rewards 
He proposes despised ; should not the motives of 
sorrow be drawn from the same source ? The 
reasonableness of contrition cannot, accordingly, 
be contested, even by rationalists. 

As to satisfaction, we are not aware of any a 
priori objection against it. Its lawfulness and nec- 
essity are disputed by some non-Catholic Chris- 
tians. They imagine that it detracts from the 
fulness of Our Lord's merits. But, as many more 



The Sacrament of Penance. 235 



admit the necessity of atoning to God's justice, 
even after the eternal punishment, which mortal 
sin deserves, has been remitted, and look upon 
satisfaction as entirely consistent with the econ- 
omy of redemption and the principles of reason, 
we shall content ourselves with remarking that 
our atonement adds nothing to the merits of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, but is rather a means of apply- 
ing to our soul the merits laid up in Our Saviour's 
redemption. 

The main attacks are directed against that part 
of the sacrament of penance which is called con- 
fession. We cannot be called upon to establish 
its necessity with arguments drawn from reason. 
Matters like these depend upon God's free will ; 
and God's enactments are not and cannot be 
known but from His own revelation ; therefore, 
revelation, and not merely human reason, should 
be consulted. Now, we maintain that the divine 
revelation places beyond doubt these two points : 
first, that the remission of grievous sins cannot be 
obtained but through the ministerial office of the 
Church, and, second, that this ministerial office 
cannot be exercised without the declaration of 
sins made by the penitent himself; hence, the 
duty of confession. Let us prove both points. 

Our Lord's words are explicit, "Amen, I say 



236 



The True Religion, 



to you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall 
be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever you 
shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven." 
(Matt, xviii. 18.) And again, after His resurrec- 
tion, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins 
you shall forgive they are forgiven them ; and 
whose sins you shall retain they are retained." 
(John xx.) We shall not waste our time in 
showing that the power spoken of in these words 
was not confined to the Apostles alone, but re- 
gards their successors as well. This power was 
given for the benefit of the members of the 
Church ; therefore, it has to last as long as the 
Church itself, to the consummation of time. 
" Moreover," remarks Archbishop Gibbons (Faith 
of Our Fathers')^ " the forgiveness of sin was to 
continue while sin lasted in the world; and as sin, 
alas ! will always be in the world, so will the 
remedy for sin be always in the Church. The 
medicine will co-exist with the disease. The 
power which Our Lord gave to the Apostles, to 
preach, to baptize, to confirm, to ordain, etc., was 
transmitted by them to their successors. Why 
not, also, the power which the}^ had received to 
forgive sins, since man's great need is his recon- 
ciliation with God by the forgiveness of his 
offences ? " The capital point, therefore, is this : 



The Sacrament of Penance. 237 



Do the texts alleged prove our twofold assertion ? 
Let us investigate the matter. 

In the words of Our Lord, the forgiveness of 
heaven is made to depend upon that which the 
Church, through her ministers, gives on earth ; so 
that those are not to be pardoned there whose sins 
are retained by the Church. This, however, would 
not be the case were there any other means of 
pardon. Therefore, forgiveness cannot be ob- 
tained save through the ministerial office of the 
Church. For, "were a judge sent forth with this 
assurance, that whomsoever he should acquit, that 
person should go free ; but that any one to whom 
he should refuse pardon should be considered as 
not forgiven, would not this imply," says Cardinal 
Wiseman (Moorfield Lectures, vol. ii., lect. x.), 
" that no forgiveness was to be obtained but 
through him? And would not the commission 
otherwise be a nullity, an insult, and a mockery? 
For would it not be an insult and a mockery of 
his authority, if another commission, totally un- 
connected with his tribunal, was at the very same 
time issued with equal power to pardon or punish 
delinquents ; if there were other means of forgive- 
ness, over which his award had no control ? Not 
merely, therefore, a power to forgive sins is given 
in our commission, but such a power as excludes 



238 



The True Religion. 



every other instrument or means of forgiveness in 
the New Law. In fact, when Christ appoints any 
institution for objects solety dependent on His will, 
that very fact excludes all other ordinary means. 
When he instituted baptism as a means of washing 
away original sin, that very institution excluded 
any other way of obtaining that benefit. In still 
stronger manner, then, does the commission here 
given constitute the exclusive means of forgive- 
ness in the ordinary course of God's dealings ; for 
not only does it leave this to be deduced by infer- 
ence, but, as we have seen, it positively so enacts, 
by limiting forgiveness in heaven to the conces- 
sion of it here below by those to whom it is 
intrusted." 

But it may be asked, What if the sinner cannot 
avail himself of the ministerial office of the 
Church ? Is every way of salvation precluded to 
him ? Shall he be deprived of all reconciliation, 
even when most desirous of God's friendship? The 
Catholic Church teaches that -perfect contrition, 

JL 7 

with the willingness to comply — if it were within 
his power — with Our Lord's injunction concern- 
ing the remission of sin, can restore man to God's 
friendship, and this because God Himself has so 
decreed. For not only do we read in the Psalms 
(1. 19) that God will not despise a contrite and 



The Sacrament of Penance. 



239 



humble heart, but we have in St. John (xiv. 23) 
the positive declaration of Our Lord, "If any one 
love me, he will keep my word ; and my Father 
will love him ; and we will come to him, and will 
make our abode with him." But perfect contrition 
arises from the perfect love of God; therefore, 
what Our Lord affirms of God's love is likewise 
true of perfect contrition. — These two provisions 
of Christ's code cannot clash; they have to be 
reconciled ; land they are, in fact, so reconciled in 
the teaching of the Church as to give each its due. 
True, therefore, as it is that the forgiveness of 
grievous sins is made to depend upon the ministe- 
rial office of the Church, it is no less true that if 
the Church's ministration cannot be procured or 
availed of, its absence will not be an insuperable 
obstacle to man's reconciliation with God. Per- 
fect contrition, as we said, will blot out the stain 
of sin, and restore God's grace to the soul — with 
the obligation, however, of obeying God's com- 
mand, if it should be, and when it shall be, in our 
power to do so. 

Our second assertion regards the declaration of 
sins to be made to a person duly authorized to for- 
give them, which duty we deduce, as a necessary 
consequence, from the fact that the ministerial 
office of the Church cannot be exercised otherwise. 



240 



The True Religion. 



Reason teaches that he who wills the end wills also 
the means that are necessarily required for its at- 
tainment ; and this is the relation in which confes- 
sion stands to the power intrusted to the Church. 
For if the lawful ministers of Christ have received 
the power of forgiving and retaining sins, could 
Our Lord have willed that this power be used at 
random ? Should a minister of human justice, 
without previous inquiry into the case, acquit one 
and condemn another, would this acquittal or con- 
demnation be looked upon as reasonable ? Assur- 
edly not. And can we suppose that a similar 
proceeding would be sanctioned b}^ God Himself? 
How many times should he who deserves con- 
demnation be acquitted, and how often condemned 
he whose dispositions are such as to be the object 
of God's mercy? And could the just God ratify 
such a sentence in heaven? And yet He has 
promised to ratify in heaven the judgment of His 
minister on earth. Therefore, reason compels us 
to admit that the act of forgiving or retaining sins 
necessarily supposes the knowledge of the offence. 
Who can impart this knowledge but the penitent 
himself? He is bound, therefore, to lay open his 
conscience before God's minister, and to declare 
h ; s sins in so far as he knows them. This is con- 
fession. The obligation, therefore, of confession 
cannot be called in question. 



The Sacrament of Penance. 



241 



Are we called upon, after this, to refute the 
charge that the introduction of this practice into 
the world is solely due to the Church? Or, 
rather, does not the argument we have given 
prove to evidence that, apart from its groundless- 
ness, the accusation runs counter to the clear and 
positive teaching of the Gospel? If the practice 
of confession is due to human invention, why do 
not our opponents state by positive and irrefuta- 
ble documents at what period it was introduced, 
who was its author, by what means it was propa- 
gated? Vain attempts are made here and there; 
regulations, evidently misconstrued, are brought 
forward ; decrees are cited which fail to prove 
what their citers intend. Much stress is laid 
upon these words of the Lateran Council: "All 
the faithful men and women shall confess their 
sins at least once a year to a priest approved by 
the Church." But, unfortunately for them, this 
decree sanctioned a discipline already observed in 
the Church, and limits the time beyond which no 
practical Catholic can be absent from the tribunal 
of penance. Had our opponents consulted the 
writings of the Fathers and the decrees of Coun- 
cils before the Lateran, they would have ascer- 
tained the fact that auricular confession was 
always practised in the Church, and undeceived 



242 The True Religion. 

themselves with regard to this, as well as many 
other charges. 

There is, however, one point which we cannot 
pass over in silence. It is said that the facility of 
obtaining forgiveness may, and actually does, lead 
to the commission of sin. Strange though it 
be, the accusation is made by the very same men 
who wax so eloquent in describing the fearful 
ordeal of confession. If confession be "the 
butchery of the soul," carneficina animce, as they 
term it, should not its practice deter from sin? 
Should not the declaration of our iniquities made 
to God alone be accounted more detrimental to 
the soul? And if this means of forgiveness — the 
only one they recognize — can prevent man from 
violating God's law again, how could confession, 
which, to obtain forgiveness, must possess the 
very same qualities, lead to different results? 
The mistake of our opponents arises from the 
fact that they do not know what is required for 
the valid reception of the sacrament of penance. 
Confession without true sorrow is null ; it will 
not obtain forgiveness; and this forgiveness is 
denied him, also, who refuses to take the neces- 
sary means for the avoidance of sin in the future. 
This all Catholics are aware of; and they are, 
therefore, fully cognizant that if the priest cannot 



The Sacrament of Penance. 



243 



see the dispositions of their heart, these are no less 
indispensably required; and that their absence 
would render of no avail the acquittal pronounced 
by him as God's minister on earth. In point of 
fact, Catholics have the certain persuasion that 
the frequentation cf confession is attended by 
wonderful results : bad habits are corrected ; seeds 
of virtue sown in the soul; a new vigor added to 
our power for good ; injustices repaired ; doubts 
dispelled; dangers avoided. Luther himself ac- 
knowledged this ; for, while he falsely denied that 
the practice of confession, as followed in the 
Catholic Church, can be clearly proved from 
Scripture, he was compelled to admit its useful- 
ness; he rejoiced at its existence, and exhorted all 
to use it. (Cf. Mohler, Symbolick.^) 

As we have but hinted at the difficulty of con- 
fession, let us add a few words more in explana- 
tion. In reality, the difficulty is riot so appalling 
as the imagination at first pictures it. If we look 
well into it, we shall find much to alleviate its 
burden. For, is it not according to man's nature 
to seek relief from anguish by unburdening his 
soul to that of a friend? Is not the peace of con- 
science which ordinarily follows the voluntary 
manifestation of guilt a powerful inducement to 
declare it ? Is it not most consoling to hear the 



244 



The True Religion. 



assuring words that our sins are forgiven? We 
declare our sins to a man, it is true; but to a man 
invested with God's authority ; representing Our 
Lord Himself; duty-bound to receive penitent 
sinners as Our Lord received them, with all the 
tenderness, the compassion, the love of a father. 
Moreover, our confidence shall never be betrayed. 
Life itself, if needed, is to be sacrificed by God's 
minister, rather than disclose the secrets opened 
to him in confession ; and we can truly say, to the 
glory of the Catholic Church, that, notwithstand- 
ing the apostasy of some of her priests, none of 
them have ever been known to fail in this duty. 
Would not this fact alone show forth the divine 
institution of confession ? 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EVERLASTING PUNISHMENTS. 

Human reason cannot reject the dogma of the eternity of pains 
on scriptural grounds — An eternal punishment clearly revealed 
— The last judgment — Misery of the wicked; happiness of the 
just — Eternity of both implied in many passages of the Gospel — 
Necessity of man's redemption— An eternal punishment consis- 
tent with God's justice — It is proportioned to man's guilt — God's 
love and man's misery. 

No dogma in this age of ours is assailed with 
more bitterness than that which consigns unfor- 
given sin to eternal misery. Human reason, in 
the case of many, is willing to yield with regard 
to all the rest ; but this one dogma it would blot 
out from the Christian creed. God, they say, is 
too just to visit passing acts of sin with an endless 
penalty ; He is too good to look unmercifully 
upon the sufferings of His unfortunate creatures. 
In vain is the reply forced upon them that this 
dogma is proposed to our belief by the venerable 
authority of God's Church on earth; that for 
nineteen centuries it has claimed and obtained 
the assent of millions and millions of Christians ; 
that countless martyrs allowed themselves to be 

245 



246 



The True Religion. 



torn, and mangled, and burnt, choosing all temporal 
torments rather than eternal dea h; they are too 
strong-minded to yield to these arguments. The 
heroism of the martyrs they regard as fanaticism ; 
the universal belief of the Christian world as 
superstition ; the authority of the Church as the 
usurpation of man's sacred rights. Not that they 
altogether reject God's word; no, many of them 
are Christians. But they maintain that God's 
word is to be explained according to the light of 
man's individual reason, and that individual rea- 
son cannot call for the conviction that God ever 
revealed this awful dogma. Although their error 
has been refuted in the first part of our work, yet 
we are not unwilling to enter upon the discussion 
of this subject as if we had not settled the ques- 
tion of the Church's authority, and derive from 
the very principle of our opponents a most im- 
pressive confirmation of our belief in the eternity 
of pain. 

They say that "that alone is true which human 
reason can detect in the teaching of divine revela- 
tion." Even so. But we affirm that human rea- 
son does detect in divine revelation the teaching 
of everlasting punishment ; therefore, it must be 
admitted ; therefore, we do not yield to supersti- 
tion when we believe that the torments of hell 



Everlasting Punishments. 



247 



shall have no end. Out of the many passages of 
the Gospel, we choose to consider only one, that 
which speaks of the last judgment, especially as 
related in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew. 

The day of the final judgment is called by the 
unerring voice of Scripture the day of the Lord ; 
a day of justice ; a day of terror ; hence, those 
awful signs which shall announce the wrath of 
God ; that fear which shall overcome all living 
creatures ; those cries of despair with which the 
reprobate shall bid the mountains fall upon them 
and hide them from the sight of Christ. This can 
be understood if we admit the eternity of punish- 
ment ; but if that dogma were not true, the terror 
would be unfounded; God's justice would not 
triumph ; the shame of the wicked would have no 
cause. On that day all should open their hearts 
to gladness and joy ; all would glorify God's 
mercy ; all should wish to behold Christ their 
judge, because that day would end with the glori- 
fication of all summoned to His tribunal. 

Again, when the last trumpet shall have 
sounded throughout the kingdom of death, and 
the angels shall have separated the just from the 
wicked, do we not read that the Son of God made 
man, after having recalled the good Avorks of His 
saints, and the evil doings of His unfaithful ser- 



248 



The True Religion. 



vants, shall speak to the former of the kingdom 
prepared for them from the foundation of the 
world ; to the latter of the fire prepared for Satan 
and his angels ? What is the meaning of all this, 
if all men are to enjoy at last the same inheri- 
tance, possess the same kingdom, be called to the 
same eternal bliss ? If that bliss, that kingdom, 
that inheritance, shall belong to the just, only 
because they fed their Master, visited their 
Master, consoled their Master in the person of 
their neighbor, how can that same inheritance, 
kingdom, happiness, belong to those to whom Our 
Lord shall say : " I was hungry, and j^ou gave me 
not to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to 
drink ; I was a stranger, and you took me not in ; 
naked, and you clothed me not ; sick, and in 
prison, and you did not visit me ? " We should 
sink to the very depths of absurdity ; the prepara- 
tion which Our Lord describes would be but a 
childish display ; the most solemn act of God's 
power would be changed into a ridiculous comedy. 

Furthermore, in the same Gospel we read of 
rewards and punishments ; they are opposed to 
each other; both are said to be everlasting; there- 
fore, we must either deny or affirm the eternity of 
both. If we deny everlasting punishment, reason 
compels us to deny likewise the eternity of joy. 



Everlasting Punishments. 



249 



But all admit an endless happy life for the just ; 
therefore none can rightly deny an endless un- 
happy life for the wicked. None can suppose that 
Christ, on that most solemn occasion, when He 
spoke as the supreme judge of mankind, and un- 
folded the final issue of this our state of trial, 
could have used the selfsame word, on the same 
occasion, in two altogether different meanings, 
without giving a hint that He was so doing — 
nay, when everything leads us to understand both 
words in exactly the same meaning. Were Christ 
only a man, yet a wise, a good man, we could not 
make such a supposition ; for it would imply in 
Him either supreme ignorance or malice. How, 
then, can we suppose that in a matter like this 
Christ would use ambiguous language, — language 
which would certainly lead into error most dan- 
gerous to our eternal destiny, — and at the same 
time believe that He is supreme wisdom, infallible 
truth, God made man ? Therefore, if we would 
honor Christ's character, if we would admit that 
the blessed shall enjoy an eternity of bliss, and be 
logical in our conclusions, we cannot withdraw 
from the admission that God will punish unatoned- 
for sin with an everlasting punishment. 

And now let us allow the light of other pas- 
sages of the Gospel to fall upon the words of St. 



250 



The True Religion. 



Matthew which we have already expounded. Did 
not Christ say of the traitor, " It were better for 
him if that man had not been born" ? (Matt. xiv. 
21.) If no endless misery awaits unpardoned sin ; 
if, though millions of years of suffering might 
have to pass, those sufferings should finally be 
followed by an eternity of love in the bosom of 
God, then by the infinite difference which exists 
between time, however long, and eternity, it were 
eternally good, infinitely good, that that man 
should have been born. 

Did not Our Lord say, " What doth it profit a 
man to gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul ? " (Matt. xvi. 26.) That soul is not lost which 
will finally and certainly be restored. And if the 
soul is to be finally and certainly restored, the 
word of Christ is no longer certain truth; our 
faith is gone; we are justified in rejecting all the 
dogmas of the Christian religion. 

Once more : is it not evident from the teaching 
of the Gospel that we must admit the necessity of 
a Redeemer; that we cannot be saved without 
His mediation ; that His precious blood must be 
applied to our souls, if we are to have any share 
in the Kingdom of God? All this should be 
denied if we deny the eternity of pain. Because, 
if hell be not eternal, our ruin is not irreparable ; 



Everlasting Punishments, 



251 



if our ruin is not irreparable, there is a natural 
means of being reconciled with God ; if there is 
a natural means of being reconciled with God, 
then it matters little whether there be a Saviour 
or not, whether or not He died for our salvation, 
whether or not He offers His blood for the expia- 
tion of our iniquities ; it would always remain true 
that if hell be not eternal, heaven would, sooner 
or later, be the everlasting abode of every soul. 
Doctrines are so woven together in the Christian 
religion that one must concede either everything 
or nothing; and therefore we may conclude that 
the very principle of those who oppose the doc- 
trine of everlasting punishment contains the justi- 
fication of our faith. 

Ought we listen, after this, to the quibbling of 
an unsound philosophy, or stop to reply to those 
objections by which it has labored to obscure our 
dogma ? We are held by no such necessity ; for 
right-minded men will reason thus : There can be 
no doubt of God's revelation ; that revelation, 
even illustrated by the feeble light of human 
reason, teaches an eternal punishment ; therefore, 
this punishment is in keeping with all the other 
divine perfections ; therefore, if I do not see how 
it can be reconciled with God's justice and good- 
ness, I must confess my ignorance, and, bowing to 



252 



The True Religion. 



the authority of my God, exclaim with all the 
energy of my soul, I do believe! However, if 
human reason cannot clearly solve all objections 
that may be raised, is it true that it can throw no 
light upon this mystery? Let us examine. 

Justice requires, it is said, that the punishment 
should be proportioned to man's sin, This is 
undeniable ; but what kind of proportion is signi- 
fied? Is a proportion of time to be established 
between the two? should the punishment of a 
crime not exceed in duration the time taken for 
its perpetration ? If this be true, then we must 
proclaim the injustice of all human tribunals, 
abolish all human laws, condemn all human judg- 
ments, because no human judgments, no human 
laws, no human tribunals, are in accordance with 
that principle. The crime of a moment is often 
expiated by years and years of punishment, and 
still no one advocates the injustice of the punish- 
ment. If there be no injustice in such judgments 
of men, why and how do we accuse of injustice 
the judgments of God? We call that penalty 
just which is in proportion with the criminality of 
the action. And how do we measure the guilt? 
Is it only by the action itself? No. Is it only 
by the perpetrator considered in himself alone? 
No. Two culprits are brought up for judgment ; 



Everlasting Punishments. 



253 



both are assassins; but one has trampled upon 
the most sacred duties of nature ; his hands are 
stained with his father's blood ; he is guilty of 
parricide. Do we see no difference between his 
crime and that of the other, who took the life of 
an enemy? Every one shrinks with more horror 
from the former crime; acknowledges its greater 
guilt ; demands for it a heavier punishment. 
Whence comes the difference if not from the 
quality of the persons? if not from the special 
relations which exist between the offended and 
the offender? if not from the violation of duties 
more or less sacred? The consequence is evi- 
dent : there are cases in which the quality of the 
offended renders the action more criminal. 

Now, God is our Father, our Creator, our Mas- 
ter. He has chosen man's heart to be His throne. 
He reigns there when He is loved, respected, 
obeyed. Man, in his perversity, with full knowl- 
edge and full deliberation, refuses love to his 
Father; ignores his dependence upon his Creator; 
is unwilling to comply with his Supreme Master's 
will. God is offended; and who is God? the 
greatest, the most powerful, the most perfect of 
beings. — What ties bind man to God? the most 
inviolable. — What duties does man owe to God? 
the most sacred. — Therefore, man's guilt is, from 



254 



The True Religion. 



a certain point of view, the greatest we can imag- 
ine ; therefore, it calls for the greatest punish- 
ment; therefore, the punishment must be endless, 
because we always conceive something greater 
than that which is limited in its duration. 

In vain do our adversaries adduce, in support 
of their views, the goodness and mercy of God. 
He is, indeed, good and merciful ; He is infinitely 
so ; but when did reason ever reveal that God's 
goodness should encourage man's rebellion, shield 
man's wickedness, sanction man's perversity? 
God's goodness is not only a tender commisera- 
tion, a merciful compassion toward sinners ; it is 
also, and above all, the necessary love of order ; 
it implies an infinite hatred of that which is 
opposed to His sanctity ; it is the abhorrence of 
whatever violates His most sacred rights. Con- 
sequently, because God is good, He cannot bear 
forever with rebellious creatures. These, after 
having despised His rnerc}^, must in the end fall 
under the rigor of His justice. 

If these reasons do not demonstrate and make 
evident that the punishment of sin must be 
eternal, they prove, at least, that eternal punish- 
ment is not contradictory to any known truth ; 
hence, reason itself justifies our faith. The proud 
philosopher, the heretic, the free-thinker may 



Everlasting Punishments. 



255 



ridicule our belief, obscure our dogmas, appeal to 
human passions to prop up their errors; but 
beyond this, one and all, they are powerless. 
While they reap the applauses of a multitude, but 
too impatient to banish whatever is likely to 
render it uneasy in the midst of worldly and 
guilt}' pleasures, they cannot — no, whatever be 
their fame, their genius, their eloquence, they 
cannot at all persuade any well regulated mind, 
much less can they themselves acquire the con- 
viction, that God has never revealed an eternal 
punishment. 



CHAPTER IX. 



VENERATION AND INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 

The Church the true mother of the faithful — Affection most 
abiding in the heart of a mother — Lawfulness of its outward 
expression — Patriots honored even after death — Why cannot the 
Church exult in the triumph of her children — Honors must corre- 
spond to the nature of the society which renders them — Differ- 
ence between veneration and worship — Subordinate honors ren- 
dered to saints, and the honor due to God — Invocation of saints 
consistent with the mediatorial power of Christ. 

The religion which Our Lord brought down 
from heaven is not inimical to the noblest tenden- 
cies of our nature. Its work is not to destroy 
what God Himself has implanted in our hearts, 
but rather to ennoble, to direct, each one of our 
aspirations, and render them all worthy of our 
high destiny. Now, should one dear to our heart 
be called to enjoy the happiness of a better world, 
would our affections end with his mortal life, or 
follow him beyond the grave ? And if his image 
would still live in our soul, if the memory of his 
virtues would still be present to our minds, and 
his last farewell still echo in our hearts, could we 
help giving expression to our feelings? Should 

256 



Veneration and Invocation of Saints, 257 



we not use all the resources in oar power to pro- 
long and perpetuate his memory, and think it 
criminal to withhold the homage of our respect 
and veneration from his noble and virtuous 
actions ? 

Yes, human affection is lasting ; lasting in 
every heart, but in none so abiding as in that of 
a truly Christian mother. Oh ! how often does 
her memory recur to the days when the innocent 
smile of a child gave to her life pleasures that 
shall nevermore be hers ! Year after year has 
passed away, but her affection has not faded with 
time ; she looks with love upon whatever belongs 
to her offspring; she is ready to make any sacri- 
fice rather than part with a souvenir, insignifi- 
cant, perhaps, in itself, but most precious to her, 
only because it is the gift of one who had the best 
share in her affection. Nor can this feeling be kept 
imprisoned in her heart. The very praises she 
never ceases to bestow upon the virtues of her 
child, the very flowers with which she bestrews 
its grave, the very tears that rise whenever its 
name is mentioned, prove that her affection can- 
not remain hidden within her soul. It must be 
manifested ; and this manifestation, when kept 
within proper bounds, none can blame but such as 
vice has divested of the best feelings of our nature. 



258 



The True Religion. 



If such be the tendency of our nature, how is it 
possible, asks Gerbet, whose train of thought we 
follow throughout this chapter, that the Church, 
the mother of all true believers, should not have 
similar feelings in regard to those children who 
lived of her love, displayed before the world the 
example of the most heroic virtues, or shed the 
last drop of their blood to propagate God's glory 
and to defend her doctrine and her rights? 
What ! though so often distracted by the vani- 
ties of this world, our hearts are yet capable of 
noble feelings ; and the heart of the Church, 
our more than loving mother ; the heart of the 
daughter of God, so sacredly faithful in her 
remembrances, so noble in her aspirations, so 
divine in her love ; the heart of the bride of 
Christ, regenerated by His blood, animated by 
His spirit, enriched with many of His treasures, 
— can man think that heart should either remain 
indifferent, or stifle its feelings as unworthy to 
be brought to light? Simple common sense 
makes us shrink from this assertion. Now, 
what are the praises with which the Church 
honors the memory of her saints but the manifest- 
ation of her love? As long as her children are 
on earth, she desires that their own humility 
should conceal their greatness ; she abstains from 



Veneration and Invocation of Saints. 259 



praises, as these might become a quicksand to 
their piety. But when their glorious career is 
over ; when they have finally overcome all the 
enemies of their salvation; when the voice of 
Heaven, by evident miracles, has proclaimed their 
sanctity, why cannot the Church exult in the 
triumph of her children, sing hymns of joy, invite 
the whole world to glorify those whom God Him- 
self has glorified ? 

Why cannot the Church enjoy the same priv- 
ilege which we grant to civil society? Are not 
patriots honored even after death ? Do we not 
raise monuments to perpetuate the memory of 
their glorious deeds? Does not the genius of 
poetry put forth its most enthusiastic strains to 
celebrate the heroism of their lives? And yet, 
none dare to condemn such proceedings. Why, 
then, should the same privilege be refused to that 
society which is God's especial institution? Some 
answer, " Because of the difference which exists 
between civil and religious honors." But should 
not the honors rendered correspond to the nature 
of the society which renders them? What honors 
should a religious mother render religious chil- 
dren, if not religious honors ? The mistake of our 
opponents is that they imagine w r e honor the saints 
as we honor God Himself. But the difference is 



260 



The True Religion. 



great — infinite. We worship God, we do not 
worship the saints ; to God we give our adora- 
tion, to the saints our veneration ; whilst we honor 
God as the author of nature, grace, and glory, we 
honor the saints as the beloved friends of God ; 
we praise in them the very gifts of God ; by extol- 
ling their virtues, we sing, indeed, a hymn of 
glory to the Author of their sanctity. 

We do not deny that the word worship is used, 
at times, by Catholic writers in reference to the 
honor due to the saints. In such cases it is not 
used in its primary, but in its subordinate, sense. 
A passage from St. Augustin will dispense us from 
further declarations. " We worship the martyrs," 
says this great Doctor, " with that worship of love 
and fellowship with which, even in this life, holy 
men are worshipped whose hearts we feel are ready 
to endure a similar death for evangelical truth. 
But the martyrs more devotedly, as it is the safer 
after their conflicts overcome, as also with more 
confident praise we exalt those who are already 
triumphant in a happier life than those who are 
still engaged in battle in this life. But with that 
worship which in Greek is called kaTQFtu, as it is a 
kind of service properly due to the Divinity, we 
neither worship nor teach to worship other than the 
one God, But, whereas to this worship pertains 



Veneration and Invocation of Saints. 



261 



the oblation of sacrifice, — whence they who offer 
this also to idols are declared guilty of idolatry, — 
we do not in any wise offer, or teach to be offered, 
anything of this kind, either to any martyr, to any 
holy soul, or to any angel ; and whoever falls into 
this error, he is reproved by sound teaching, either 
that he may amend, or be avoided." QLib. xx., 
No. 21, Contra Faustum.*) 

To proceed logically in their objection, our 
opponents should prove that, however subordinate 
are the honors we bestow upon the saints, they 
necessarily conflict with the honor of a higher 
kind we are bound to render to God. But this 
assertion refutes itself — it would prove too much ; 
for if subordinate and supreme honors conflict, 
subordinate and supreme love would conflict like- 
wise. But we are bound to love God with our 
whole heart, mind, strength, and soul ; therefore, 
if the principle of our opponents be true, the love 
we give to relatives and friends would necessarily 
detract from the love due to God. But this 
is evidently false ; therefore, the same reason 
which renders subordinate love lawful, retains 
its force with regard to subordinate religious 
honors. 

Again, are we not bound to admire, to praise, 
to exalt, God's perfections — God, the first prin- 



262 



The True Religion. 



ciple, the final end, the ideal of every perfection? 
And yet, does this duty annihilate the secondary 
claims of created beings to our admiration ? Could 
we call him an idolater who should celebrate in 
song the flowers of the fields, the stars of the 
firmament, the majesty of the ocean ? Should we 
say that the praises poets bestow upon the won- 
ders of creation detract from the praises due to 
the Creator ? Assuredly not ; and why ? Because 
it is God Himself we praise in admiring His 
works ; and certainly human poetry — except 
when it celebrates the grandeurs of the supernatu- 
ral order — is never more sublime, never more 
charming, never fills the heart with loftier 
thoughts, than when it draws its inspiration from 
the beauties of nature. Now, what are the saints? 
Are they not the wonders of the New Jerusalem, 
made spotless and holy by the blood of Christ? 
Are they not the flowers that unfold their loveli- 
ness before the throne of the Author of all beauty? 
Are they not the stars of that supernatural king- 
dom where God displays the infinity of His 
glory? If beyond all natural objects the saints 
excite our admiration, it is because they are our 
brothers, children of the same mother, possessors 
of the same kingdom which we ourselves hope 
one day to possess. If, then, by admiring nature 



Veneration and Invocation of Sxints. 263 



we honor God, how can our admiration for the 
saints be injurious to Him ? 

But we do more than praise the saints — we in- 
voke them ; does not this invocation place them 
on a par with God? We admit the fact; we deny 
the inference which our opponents would draw 
from it — and this, because it does not flow from 
the premises. We invoke the saints ; that is, we 
beg them to intercede for us before the throne of 
God. Is this idolatry? To show, to a certainty, 
the absurdity of the objection, we ask of those who 
arm themselves against the pious practice of in- 
voking the saints of heaven, whether or not they 
deem it lawful for us to recommend ourselves to 
the prayers of others. What is their answer? That 
it is unlawful ? But then they have to condemn 
the great Apostle himself, who writes to the Ro- 
mans, " I beseech you, brethren, through Our Lord 
Jesus Christ and the charity of the Holy Ghost, 
that you help me in your prayers for me to God." 
They must blot out from Holy Writ all those pas- 
sages where we are exhorted to pray for one an- 
other. They must either deny or condemn the 
universal practice of the Christian world, that 
practice which, beginning with the first Christians, 
has been handed down to us through the ages, and 
which fastens more closely the ties of fraternal 



264 



The True Religion. 



charity. If they cannot do this, they are bound 
to admit and proclaim with us the lawfulness of 
recommending ourselves to the prayers of others. 
But, in that case, how can it be unlawful to recom- 
mend ourselves to the prayers of the saints, to 
invoke their protection, to beg them to second our 
petitions before the throne of God? Is it not 
contrary to reason to imagine that as long as they 
were on earth they could pray for us, and we could 
ask the assistance of their prayers ; but after they 
have reached heaven they lose the power of assist- 
ing us, and we the privilege of being helped by 
their charit} r ? Is it possible that in passing from 
misery to bliss, from the kingdom of mortality 
to the empire of life, from the abode of sin to the 
very heart of infinite love, they become at once 
either powerless or indifferent? This would be 
inconsistent with the state of glory they are called 
to enjoy, and with the perfection of charity which 
reigns in the Kingdom of Heaven. If, then, the 
grace of God's friendship and that of love for their 
brethren still remain in their hearts, if from weak 
and frail they have become perfect and incorrupt- 
ible, we must believe that holy souls have become 
more powerful with God in obtaining what they 
ask, and more willing to hear our supplications. 
The same line of argument may be applied to 



41 



Veneration and Invocation of Saints. 



265 



answer that oft-repeated objection that " the 
invocation of saints conflicts with the mediatorial 
power of Christ." For, if the prayer of a saint in 
glory be inconsistent with what we believe con- 
cerning Our Lord's mediation, the prayer of the 
same saint while on earth must be equally so. 
Therefore, we should either deny the lawfulness 
of the prayers we offer for each other, or admit 
that the objected inconsistency arises from the 
misconception of our dogma. We confess that 
the saints have no power of their own; no power 
which is not derived from the merits of Christ ; but 
we know, also, that while associating the saints in 
His glory, Our Lord has not excluded them from 
a share in His solicitude for that Church which 
was won by His blood, but edified and cemented 
by their labors and their martyrdoms. Should our 
opponents put aside, only for a moment, their pre- 
judices, and with an humble spirit read that Bible 
which is the only rule of their faith, they would 
no longer break asunder the bonds which unite 
earth to heaven ; they would proclaim that it is 
good and salutary to venerate and invoke the 
saints; and bowing down with religious respect 
before their shrines, with us, with the whole Catho- 
lic world, with the Church of their fathers, they 
would exclaim, " Saints of heaven, pray for us." 



CHAPTER X. 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN THE CHURCH. 

Relations established between the Blessed Virgin Mary and 
mankind — Power of God's words — The annunciation of the 
divine motherhood completed by the annunciation of the mater- 
nity of men — Dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Greatness of 
the gifts bestowed upon her — Reason of our confidence in her 
intercession — Her mediation and Christ's mediation — Her co- 
operation in the work of our redemption — Striking similarity 
between our regeneration and our fall — Her co-operation detracts 
in nothing from Our Lord's merits. 

The cravings of our nature are manifold and 
various. Among them, the most sacred, perhaps, 
and the most imperative within the circle of 
human things, is that which asks for the care, the 
sympathy, the affection, and the love of a mother. 
This need seems to come forth from the very 
depth of our nature, and is so linked w T ith our life 
as to be felt even in the order of grace. Bereft 
or not of earthly parents, we wish to place our 
spiritual life under the protection of a mother ; 
we long to bestow this endearing name upon 
some object of our supernatural affection ; in the 
sad no less than in the joyful events of life, we 
love to think that our sadness and our joy find 

266 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 267 



an echo, as it were, in one whose heart glows with 
motherly love. 

It were enough, however, to look upon the 
Church with filial feelings ; she is truly a mother 
to us, for through her instrumentality we are 
begotten to Christ, have life in us, and receive 
the means of renewing and sustaining it; yet it 
pleased God to satisfy our wants to the full. He 
gave us as children to His own Son's mother, and 
allowed no other but this same Son to proclaim 
the relations He established between her and 
mankind. This proclamation was to be given 
from no other station than the cross, because 
from the cross were to come all those graces 
which make us like unto Jesus. Sin was first to 
be expiated, and when our Saviour's wounds 
cried out for mercy in our behalf, when the price 
of our ransom was paid, when, covered with the 
Redeemer's blood, we could look up to heaven 
and call God our Father, it was then that Jesus 
opened up new fountains of love in the heart of 
the purest of virgins, and, transferring to us some 
of the claims which endeared Him to her love, 
caused the new Eve to adopt beforehand all the 
generations of men by a true maternity of souls : 
" Behold thy son; . . . behold thy mother." 
(John xix. 16.) 



268 



The True Religion. 



God's word is unlike that of man. Ours only 
signifies. God's is creative. The earth and 
heavens were not; He spoke, and they sprang 
forth into existence. The same word which gave 
existence to that which was not, produced in the 
heart of Mary a new world of affection ; it created 
a new maternity, more constant in love, more 
extended in its sphere, more enduring in patience, 
more eloquent than any other maternity in its 
appeal to the best feelings of our nature. The 
annunciation of the divine motherhood was thus 
completed by the annunciation of the maternity 
of men. The fiat then pronounced is not uttered 
now; her consent needed no outward expression, 
when her own Son, bleeding upon the cross, 
requested her to be our mother. As Mary from 
that moment looked upon every man as the child 
of her sorrows, so from that very moment man 
began to look upon Mary with all the confidence 
with which a child looks up to his mother. 

From this brief sketch of the relations which 
God has established between us and Mary, ought 
any one to wonder at the feelings which burn in 
Christian hearts whenever we speak or think of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary ? If a child cannot be blamed 
when he bestows praises upon his mother, why 
should we deserve condemnation in praising Mary? 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 269 



Nor can it be said that our praises exceed the 
proper bounds. For with the exception of the 
honor due to God, — which is of an altogether 
different kind, and which no Catholic ever dreams 
-of bestowing upon even the Immaculate Virgin, 
— what honors can be said to be undeserved by 
her, whose adopted children we are', and who is 
in truth God's own mother? What is honor but 
the acknowledgment of merit, and the public 
recognition thereof? And has not merit itself its 
source in the true perfection with which the 
being that is honored is endowed? And is not 
this perfection, when considered in its highest 
sphere, but the consequence of the graces and 
favors with which God enriches His creature ? 
And is there any perfection ever bestowed upon 
any creature, which was not bestowed in a higher 
degree upon our heavenly Mother ? 

Doubtless the gifts of grace depend upon God's 
will ; but it would be folly to imagine that they 
are given at random. Wisdom and love are, if 
we may so speak, the regulating power of God's 
munificence ; because wisdom requires a kind # of 
proportion between the dignity to which a crea- 
ture is raised and the endowments with which it 
is to be sustained; and the greater the divine 
love for a creature, the closer is the union between 



270 



The True Religion. 



that same creature and the Creator, which union 
is the measure of the gifts of grace. Now, can 
created mind conceive a greater dignity than that 
of Mother of God? Can it be supposed that God 
ever loved or ever will love any creature as He 
loved His own Mother? Should not, then, the 
gifts of grace and glory bestowed upon her be far 
greater than those which our limited mind can 
conceive in any other creature? And if honor 
consists precisely in the acknowledgment and 
exaltation of these same gifts, why, again, should 
the praises we bestow upon our Mother be 
deemed either unlawful or undeserved? Why 
should we be prevented from exalting our Moth- 
er's name? why should we not rejoice at behold- 
ing our Mother's greatness, and express our joy 
with all the fervor of filial hearts ? 

Moreover, in honoring Mary, what else are we 
doing but imitating the heavenly messenger who 
saluted her as full of grace, united to God, blessed 
among women ? What are all the praises which 
the Church offers to Mary, whether in her prayers, 
or J3y the mouth of her preachers, or the pen of 
her writers, but a faint commentary on the words 
of the archangel? What is the veneration we 
have for her but the fulfilment of the prophecy 
made by our heavenly Mother herself when, filled 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 271 



with the Holy Ghost, magnifying the Lord and 
extolling His mercy, she exclaimed: " All genera- 
tions shall call me blessed"? (Luke i. 43.) To 
suppress our feelings, therefore, would not only 
be inconsistent with the filial love we should 
have for her, but would also contradict the clear 
teaching of the Gospel. 

To speak now of the confidence we have in the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, what is it but that of chil- 
dren toward their mother? And how can God 
find fault with us, when He Himself established 
these tender relations between Mary and each one 
of us? What else did Our Lord intend by giving 
us as children to her, if not to render our appeal 
to heaven easier and more efficacious? "We are, 
no doubt, aware that God alone is the source of 
every grace ; that His goodness has no limits ; 
that His mercy is infinitely greater than our mis- 
ery ; but we know, likewise, that there is in God 
a grandeur above all grandeur; a sanctity which 
must abhor the slightest faults ; a justice as infi- 
nite as His mercy; and so, conscious of our un- 
worthiness, we fear to approach the throne of 
God. Jesus then reveals Himself to us. He 
appears less terrible ; He seems to dispel our 
fears. Though equal to His Father, He has 
veiled His divinity under human form ; He calls 



272 



The True Religion. 



Himself our brother ; He invites us to go to Him ; 
but when we remember that He is likewise our 
judge, we are glad to come before His throne 
protected of her whom He appointed our spiritual 
Mother. If we pray often to her, it is not that 
we distrust Our Lord's mercy, but because her 
intercession is more powerful than ours ; because 
she is more loved by her Son than we are ; be- 
cause she has been appointed dispenser of God's 
mercy toward us. She is not the source, but the 
channel through which God's graces and favors 
flow upon the world. As she co-operated in 
giving the Saviour to the world, so she co-operates, 
by God's appointment, in distributing the merits 
of the Saviour to each soul. As this point is 
among the grandest of Catholic theology, and 
open likewise to misunderstanding, let us explain 
it at greater length, and demonstrate the state- 
ment put forth in speaking of the Incarnation, 
that "her co-operation detracts in nothing from 
Our Lord's merits." 

The words of St. Paul in the first epistle to the 
Corinthians are well known (xv. 22). He pos- 
itively asserts that in the plan of God there was 
to be a striking similarity between our regenera- 
tion and our fall. Now, what do we believe con- 
cerning our fall? Did we lose the supernatural 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 273 



gifts with which God enriched our nature at its 
creation, because of the disobedience of a woman? 
Certainly not. The first man alone held our des- 
tiny in his hands ; Adam's was the sublime mis- 
sion of conducting man to glory ; in him alone we 
find the terrible power of causing our ruin. If 
sin had found no access to his heart, mankind 
would have suffered nothing from the wreck of 
the first woman's innocence ; if Adam alone had 
been the sinner, the malediction of God would no 
less than now weigh upon the world ; both of our 
first parents having sinned, the two faults do not 
blend to cause our condemnation. We are lost 
because Adam sinned, and only because he sinned. 

Our belief with regard to redemption is similar. 
There is but one Redeemer and Mediator, Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, made man. His death 
upon the cross is the only cause of our regener- 
ation. If God had decreed to save the world 
without the co-operation of any creature, Our 
Lord's sacrifice would have been no less sufficient 
and superabundant. If God had not decreed to 
save the world at all, no created being could have 
done anything to help man out of his woful con- 
dition ; and when God determined to associate a 
woman in the work of our redemption, her co-op- 
eration added nothing to the fulness of our Lord's 



274 



The True Religion. 



merits, and is not now the cause of His granting 
favors and graces to man. If we become God's 
friends, His adopted children, joint heirs with 
Christ, it is only because Our Lord's merits are 
applied to our souls. Jesus, then, is the only 
cause of our regeneration, as Adam was the only 
cause of our condemnation : " as in Adam all die, 
so also in Christ all shall be made alive." 

This is our doctrine ; a doctrine proclaimed by 
all true Catholics; always set forth in Catholic 
teaching ; and we challenge any one to point out 
a single document, emanating from the Church, in 
which it is contradicted, either wholly or in part. 
But does not this doctrine stand in opposition to 
our previous statement, and especially to the glo- 
rious office we ascribe to her of co-operating in 
the work of our salvation? Let us examine into 
the point at issue. 

True as it is that Adam was the cause of our 
ruin, must we not say that the first woman had a 
real part in it ? The history of our fall needs not 
to be here retraced ; we are only too well aware 
how sin defiled the first man. As soon as our 
ruin was consummated, when our unhappy par- 
ents hid themselves among the trees of Paradise 
from the face of God, and the Lord God called 
Adam to account for his rebellion, Adam said, 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 275 



" The woman whom Thou gavest me to be my 
companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat." 
(Gen. iii. 12) ; and God Himself, acknowledging 
the participation of the first woman, said to 
Adam : " Because thou hast hearkened to the 
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree 
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not 
eat, cursed is the earth in thy work ; with labor 
and toil shall thou eat thereof all the days of thy 
life." Hence, if we have to admit that Adam is 
the real cause, we cannot deny that Eve had a 
true share in our fall. Therefore, the one is not 
in opposition to the other ; we fell because Adam 
ate of the fruit of the forbiclden tree ; but the 
fruit of that tree came to him through the hands 
of Eve. 

Our redemption, we remarked, was to be simi- 
lar to our condemnation. Eve had a real part in 
our fall ; should not Mary, the new Eve, have a 
real share in our restoration ? And then, if the 
co-operation of the first woman is consistent with 
the doctrine that Adam is the sole cause of our 
ruin, how does Mary's co-operation hinder us from 
proclaiming that Jesus is the true, the sufficient, 
the only cause of our regeneration ? Wliat, them 
needs to be proved ? That God indeed gave this 
high mission to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the 



276 



The True Religion. 



evidence of this- is found in the Gospel. An angel 
is sent to Mary to ask her consent to become the 
mother of Him in whom all generations were to 
be blessed. Whatever may be the reasons why 
God decreed that her consent should be sought for 
the sublime work of His mercy, that consent is 
asked ; therefore, that consent was a condition, of 
some kind or other, to the Incarnation ; therefore, 
if we admit that we are saved through the Incar- 
nation, we must needs acknowledge that Mary was 
associated in the work of our redemption. 

Now, the works of God are stamped with the 
seal of a wonderful unity. He does everything 
with sublime wisdom. If he once associated a 
woman in the work of our redemption, her co- 
operation is as lasting as the mediation of Christ 
Himself. Now, Our Lord was not satisfied with 
dying upon the cross, with establishing the 
Church, with leaving to the world powerful means 
of sanctification. In the work of our redemption, 
we have to distinguish two things — the acquisi- 
tion of merits, and the application of them. Our 
Lord completed the former upon the cross; the 
latter is accomplished in the life of each one of 
us, and Consequently must be continued till the 
consummation of the world ; and it is for this 
reason that, as the Apostle says, Our Lord is con- 



The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church. 277 



tinually pleading our cause before His Father. 
(Heb. vii. 25.) As Jesus, then, is completing in 
heaven the work of our redemption, so the Blessed 
Virgin is completing, and will complete to the end 
of the world, the work of her co-operation. As 
she contributed in giving Jesus to the world, so 
does she contribute in uniting each soul to Jesus ; 
as she had a part in the acquisition of the merits 
that were to save mankind, so has she a part in 
the distribution of them. 

These are a few of the reasons accounting for 
the fact that in every age and clime, at every 
point of space, as at every point of time, Mary 
was loved, and is loved, as no mother ever was 
loved. In thinking of her, hearts truly Christian 
throb with joy ; they experience emotions which 
no words can describe ; they feel a confidence in 
her intercession which no un worthiness of their 
own can ever abate. From far and near, voices 
are heard praising and invoking her; and, after 
the name of Jesus, no name is pronounced by us 
with so much veneration as hers ; no confidence 
can equal that which we have in our heavenly 
Mother. 

O Mother, unknown, despised, insulted even, by 
so many! O Mary, remember that thou art their 
Mother also. Dispel from their minds the pride 



278 



The True Religion. 



which blinds them. Banish from their hearts the 
vices which cause their ruin. Obtain for them 
the grace of knowing Jesus, thy divine Son, and 
then they shall surely' know thee likewise, praise 
thee, honor thee, love thee, the true Mother of 
mankind. 



A. M. D. G. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Part 3L 



Introduction 



1 



CHAPTER I. 

Requirements for the Study of Religion . . . 5-13 

Causes of ignorance and error — The mental vision obscured 
by prejudices and passion — Influence of preconceived ideas on 
the Apostles themselves — What prevents Rationalists from ad- 
mitting revelation — Attitude of Protestants toward the Catholic 
Church — Liberal Catholicism — Research after truth requires an 
unbiassed mind and an earnest will. 



The idea of God in man's mind — Atheism most repugnant to 
reason — Necessary connection between a personal Creator and 
the duties of religion — Religion claimed by the very needs of our 
hearts — No other than God can satisfy the cravings of our nature 
— Man's utter helplessness in misery — Duties of religion most 
essential, most universal, most consoling. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Necessity of Religion 



14-22 



CHAPTER III. 



Reason and Revelation 



23-32 



War against revelation waged by rationalism — Man is said to 
find in himself every requisite for his development — Power of 

279 



280 The True Religion. 



reason; its limits — Revelation does not undervalue man's intel- 
lectual powers — It checks the abuse of them — The history of 
past generations a proof of man's powerlessness as to religious 
systems — Present condition of rationalism — Its theory as to 
the future disproved by reason itself — Necessity of revealed 
religion. 

CHAPTER IY. 
Religion and Christianity 33-44 

Fact of revelation proved by the establishment of Christianity 

— The perfection of effects reveals the perfection of their causes — 
Christianity necessarily divine — Triumphs of the Christian relig- 
ion; recorded even by pagan writers; accDmplished as prophesied ; 
defying all human wisdom — - Miraculous spread of Christianity — 
It supposes all other miracles ; itself one of the greatest. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Divinity of Jesus Christ 45-55 

Christ's affirmation of h!s own divinity — Three possible hy- 
potheses — Hypothesis of insincerity excluded ; it would make 
Him an impostor, whose moral character even rationalists respect 

— Christ's affirmation cannot be attributed to hallucination; this 
hypothesis no less blasphemous than the preceding — Cannot 
account for the facts to be explained — Christ the true Son of 
God. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Genuineness of the Gospels 56-66 

Historical value of the four Gospels — The Gospels known from 
the beginning; quoted by the early Fathers; admitted by heretics 
of ancient times; not questioned even by pagan writers — Their 
substantial integrity proved — No material change possible dur- 
ing the lifetime of the Apostles ; nor in subsequent ages — Truth 
of the Gospel narrative — Charge of ignorance answered — Canons 
of logic as to the veracity of witnesses. 



Analytical Index. 



281 



CHAPTER VII. 

An Outline of the Christian Church .... 67-74 

The Church and the prophets — Various meanings of the word 
Church — The Church a true society — Its membership not con- 
fined to any one class of people — Vocation to faith extended to 
all; rejected by many — Good and bad members — The Church 
has an authority of its own — Our Lord's visible mission on earth 
perpetuated by the Church — Means to secure this end — The 
Church a spiritual and supernatural society. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Actual Existence of the Christian Church. . 75-86 

Man's works essentially limited in duration and extent — The 
Church freed from all subjection to time and space — It is to last to 
the consummation of time — It has existed for more than eighteen 
centuries — This degree of antiquity a characteristic of the true 
Church; to be found in the Catholic Church — Historical proof — 
Wanting in Protestant denominations — Their hypotheses to sup- 
ply the deficiencies in their historical existence refuted. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Unity of the Christian Church 87-96 

The Church one because universal — Union of minds and wills 
— Minds united by the profession of the same creed; wills, by the 
allegiance to the same authority — Necessity thereof proved from 
reason and the Gospel — Unity of government in the Catholic 
Church acknowledged even by our opponents— Catholic belief 
the same throughout the world; identical in all times— This two- 
fold unity wanting in Protestant denominations — Their disagree- 
ment even with regard to fundamental points. 

CHAPTER X. 

Theological Opinions and New Definitions . 97-106 

Opinions of theologians consistent with the unity of faith — 
Religious orders are not religious sects having creeds of their own 



282 



The True Religion. 



— Theological schools and questions outside the creed, or not 
settled by any decision of the Church — Different views of the 
same dogmas — Part of the Church in dogmatic definitions — 
Dogmas more fully declared and more clearly conceived — Differ- 
ence between progress and change — Reason of the gradual evolu- 
tion of the Catholic dogma. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Teaching Authority of the Church . . 107-115 

Catholic statement as to the teaching authority of the 
Church — Rule of faith — Protestant view of the question — With- 
out an infallible authority men cannot know the divine inspira- 
tion of the Bible ; nor that the Bible is faithfully translated ; nor 
be certain of its teaching — Necessity of an infallible teacher : the 
Church — Charge of vicious circle answered — Direct arguments 
proving the infallibility of the Church. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Papal Infallibility 116-126 

Twofold infallibility as to its subject — Infallibility is not im- 
peccability ; nor inspiration — Infallibility does not extend to 
every known or knowable truth — It deals with matters of faith 
and morals — Utterances ex cathedra; conditions thereof — The 
question of papal infallibility a question of fact — Scriptural proofs. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Church and the Natural Sciences . . . 127-137 

The Church foremost in fostering the progress of human 
knowledge — It feels no terror in presence of the true and evident 
conclusions of science — Causes of the seeming contradiction be- 
tween science and revelation — The doctrines of the Church not 
always understood and set forth as the Church holds them — 
Teaching of geology as to the formation of the world not dis- 
proved by the Church — Systems of modern biologists concerning 
the origin of man — Law of evolution unfounded — True view of 
the question. 



Analytical Index. 



283 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Salvation out of the Church 



138-148 



Eternal salvation can only come through our Lord Jesus Christ 
— Necessity of belonging to the one church He established — Soul 
and Body of the Church — Union with the Soul of the Church 
essential to salvation — Necessity of belonging to the Body of the 
Church — Ignorance of the true religion may offer no obstacle to 
salvation — Invincible ignorance ; how far possible in the present 
state of the world — Reasons why non-Catholic Christians should 
examine their religious convictions — What if good faith be 
wanting. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Salvation of Unbaptized Children . . 149-154 

Baptism essentially necessary for salvation — Our Lord's words 
refer to children as well as adults — Necessity of baptism formally 
asserted in several Councils — The principles of the Christian 
faith lead to the same conclusion — Condition of children dying 
without baptism — Probable opinion stated and defended — Nature 
of the happiness befalling them. 



Question restricted to him who is ignorant of the claims of 
Christianity — Observers of the natural law shall not be left in 
their infidelity — God's will as to the salvation of all men — 
Means of salvation intended for all — The actual bestowal of 
these means depending upon a condition to be complied with by 
man — Gratuitousness of the gift of faith — Man may do enough 
to prevent it. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



A Few Words about Infidels 



155-161 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Recapitulation 



162-166 



284 



The True Religion. 



Part 



Introduction 



167 



CHAPTER I. 



The Dogma of the Trinity 



168-177 



Teaching of revelation — Definitions of the Church — Athan- 
asian creed — The mystery of the Trinity most sublime — It 
belongs to the inward life of God — Unaided reason cannot con- 
jecture its existence; nor demonstrate its necessity, even after it 
has been revealed — It is not, however, repugnant to reason — 
Necessity of mysteries — Limitedness of the human mind — God's 
infinite perfection. 



Probabilities which reason, enlightened from above, is able 
to discover as to the mystery of the Trinity — Life the greatest 
perfection of created beings — Glory of paternity, man's noblest 
prerogative — It must exist in the Supreme Cause — Fecundity ex- 
isting in God in accordance with His nature — Illustrations from 
the working of man's soul — Man's interior word limited as to 
perfection, duration, and capacity of representation — God's word 
infinitely perfect — Personality one of the highest perfections — 
Similar analogies as to the Holy Ghost — Man's love contingent 
and accidental, God's necessary and substantial — Name of the 
Third Person. 



CHAPTER II. 



Created and Uncreated Life 



178-186 



CHAPTER III. 



The Incarnation 



187-197 



Formula of the dogma — The mystery of the Incarnation the 
converse of the mystery of the Trinity — The Saviour both God 



Analytical Index. 



285 



and man — No finite being capable of satisfying God's justice to 
the full — Triumph of God's justice and mercy — The Incarnation 
sketched out in the formation of man — Why the Second and not 
any other divine Person became man — Fitness of the time of the 
Incarnation — Manner of its accomplishment — The Incarnation 
the cause of all that is supernatural in the world. 



CHAPTER IY. 

The Eucharist 198-210 

Proofs of the Real Presence — The promise, John vi. — Point 
* at issue — Construction to be put upon Our Lord's words — Hy- 
pothesis of some Protestants refuted — The metaphorical meaning 
disproved by reason; excluded by the very words; inconsistent 
with Our Lord's reply to the Jews — The words of the institution 
are to be taken literally — Bread and wine not signs of Our Lord's 
body and blood — Teaching of tradition — The Fathers of the first 
centuries. 



CHAPTER V. 

Wonders of the Real Presence 211-221 

Three distinct dogmas; their mutual relations — Christ whole 
and entire present in this sacrament; and in each particle of 
either species — In this sacrament some things effected by the 
words of consecration, some by concomitance — The body of Our 
Lord present in the sacrament, not as in a place — Manifold 
presence — Reason cannot demonstrate the intrinsic impossibility 
of the wonders of the Eucharist. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Transubstantiation 222-282 

The substance of bread and wine no longer present after con- 
secration — Proved from Scripture — Meaning of the word tran- 
substantiation — Its fitness to express the Catholic dogma — The 
dogma of transubstantiation proved from Scripture, and the con- 
current testimony of the Fathers — The fact of nutrition consis- 



286 



The True Religion. 



tent with the dogma of transubstantiation — The accidents remain 
in the Eucharist without a subject — Strange opinion of some 
Catholic philosophers — The separability of accidents from their 
substance cannot be proved impossible. 

CHAPTEK VII. 

The Sacrament of Penance . 233-244 

Different parts of the sacrament of penance — Reasonableness 
of contrition — Necessity of atoning to God's justice — Satisfac- 
tion consistent with the economy of redemption — Ministerial 
office of the Church as to the forgiveness of sins — What if the 
sinner can have no recourse to it — Duty of confession proved 
from Scripture — Practice of confession not of human invention — 
Contradiction fallen into by our opponents — Difficulty experienced 
in the manifestation of our sins; how alleviated. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Everlasting Punishments . . 245-255 

Human reason cannot reject the dogma of the eternity of pains 
on scriptural grounds — An eternal punishment clearly revealed 
— The last judgment — Misery of the wicked; happiness of the 
just — Eternity of both implied in many passages of the Gospel — 
Necessity of man's redemption — An eternal punishment consis- 
tent with God's justice — It is proportioned to man's guilt — God's 
love and man's misery. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Veneration and Invocation of Saints . . . 256-265 

The Church the true mother of the faithful — Affection most 
abiding in the heart of a mother — Lawfulness of its outward 
expression — Patriots honored even after death — Why cannot the 
Church exult in the triumph of her children — Honors must corre- 
spond to the nature of the society which renders them — Differ- 
ence between veneration and worship — Subordinate honors ren- 
dered to saints, and the honor due to God — Invocation of saints 
consistent with the mediatorial power of Christ. 



Analytical Index. 



287 



CHAPTER X. 

The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church . . 266-278 

Relations established between the Blessed Virgin Mary and 
mankind — Power of God's words — The annunciation of the 
divine motherhood completed by the annunciation of the mater- 
nity of men — Dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Greatness of 
the gifts bestowed upon her — Reason of our confidence in her 
intercession — Her mediation and Christ's mediation — Her co- 
operation in the work of our redemption — Striking similarity 
between our regeneration and our fall — Her co-operation detracts 
in nothing from Our Lord's merits. 



